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diff --git a/2064-h/2064-h.htm b/2064-h/2064-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fbc0cf6 --- /dev/null +++ b/2064-h/2064-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5420 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland, by Samuel Johnson</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland, +by Samuel Johnson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland + + +Author: Samuel Johnson + +Release Date: April 20, 2005 [eBook #2064] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLES OF +SCOTLAND*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1775 edition with the corrections noted in the +1785 errata by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<h1>A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND</h1> +<h2>INCH KEITH</h2> +<p>I had desired to visit the Hebrides, or Western Islands of Scotland, +so long, that I scarcely remember how the wish was originally excited; +and was in the Autumn of the year 1773 induced to undertake the journey, +by finding in Mr. Boswell a companion, whose acuteness would help my +inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation and civility of manners are +sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel, in countries +less hospitable than we have passed.</p> +<p>On the eighteenth of August we left Edinburgh, a city too well known +to admit description, and directed our course northward, along the eastern +coast of Scotland, accompanied the first day by another gentleman, who +could stay with us only long enough to shew us how much we lost at separation.</p> +<p>As we crossed the Frith of Forth, our curiosity was attracted by +Inch Keith, a small island, which neither of my companions had ever +visited, though, lying within their view, it had all their lives solicited +their notice. Here, by climbing with some difficulty over shattered +crags, we made the first experiment of unfrequented coasts. Inch +Keith is nothing more than a rock covered with a thin layer of earth, +not wholly bare of grass, and very fertile of thistles. A small +herd of cows grazes annually upon it in the summer. It seems never +to have afforded to man or beast a permanent habitation.</p> +<p>We found only the ruins of a small fort, not so injured by time but +that it might be easily restored to its former state. It seems +never to have been intended as a place of strength, nor was built to +endure a siege, but merely to afford cover to a few soldiers, who perhaps +had the charge of a battery, or were stationed to give signals of approaching +danger. There is therefore no provision of water within the walls, +though the spring is so near, that it might have been easily enclosed. +One of the stones had this inscription: ‘Maria Reg. 1564.’ +It has probably been neglected from the time that the whole island had +the same king.</p> +<p>We left this little island with our thoughts employed awhile on the +different appearance that it would have made, if it had been placed +at the same distance from London, with the same facility of approach; +with what emulation of price a few rocky acres would have been purchased, +and with what expensive industry they would have been cultivated and +adorned.</p> +<p>When we landed, we found our chaise ready, and passed through Kinghorn, +Kirkaldy, and Cowpar, places not unlike the small or straggling market-towns +in those parts of England where commerce and manufactures have not yet +produced opulence.</p> +<p>Though we were yet in the most populous part of Scotland, and at +so small a distance from the capital, we met few passengers.</p> +<p>The roads are neither rough nor dirty; and it affords a southern +stranger a new kind of pleasure to travel so commodiously without the +interruption of toll-gates. Where the bottom is rocky, as it seems +commonly to be in Scotland, a smooth way is made indeed with great labour, +but it never wants repairs; and in those parts where adventitious materials +are necessary, the ground once consolidated is rarely broken; for the +inland commerce is not great, nor are heavy commodities often transported +otherwise than by water. The carriages in common use are small +carts, drawn each by one little horse; and a man seems to derive some +degree of dignity and importance from the reputation of possessing a +two-horse cart.</p> +<h2>ST. ANDREWS</h2> +<p>At an hour somewhat late we came to St. Andrews, a city once archiepiscopal; +where that university still subsists in which philosophy was formerly +taught by Buchanan, whose name has as fair a claim to immortality as +can be conferred by modern latinity, and perhaps a fairer than the instability +of vernacular languages admits.</p> +<p>We found, that by the interposition of some invisible friend, lodgings +had been provided for us at the house of one of the professors, whose +easy civility quickly made us forget that we were strangers; and in +the whole time of our stay we were gratified by every mode of kindness, +and entertained with all the elegance of lettered hospitality.</p> +<p>In the morning we rose to perambulate a city, which only history +shews to have once flourished, and surveyed the ruins of ancient magnificence, +of which even the ruins cannot long be visible, unless some care be +taken to preserve them; and where is the pleasure of preserving such +mournful memorials? They have been till very lately so much neglected, +that every man carried away the stones who fancied that he wanted them.</p> +<p>The cathedral, of which the foundations may be still traced, and +a small part of the wall is standing, appears to have been a spacious +and majestick building, not unsuitable to the primacy of the kingdom. +Of the architecture, the poor remains can hardly exhibit, even to an +artist, a sufficient specimen. It was demolished, as is well known, +in the tumult and violence of Knox’s reformation.</p> +<p>Not far from the cathedral, on the margin of the water, stands a +fragment of the castle, in which the archbishop anciently resided. +It was never very large, and was built with more attention to security +than pleasure. Cardinal Beatoun is said to have had workmen employed +in improving its fortifications at the time when he was murdered by +the ruffians of reformation, in the manner of which Knox has given what +he himself calls a merry narrative.</p> +<p>The change of religion in Scotland, eager and vehement as it was, +raised an epidemical enthusiasm, compounded of sullen scrupulousness +and warlike ferocity, which, in a people whom idleness resigned to their +own thoughts, and who, conversing only with each other, suffered no +dilution of their zeal from the gradual influx of new opinions, was +long transmitted in its full strength from the old to the young, but +by trade and intercourse with England, is now visibly abating, and giving +way too fast to that laxity of practice and indifference of opinion, +in which men, not sufficiently instructed to find the middle point, +too easily shelter themselves from rigour and constraint.</p> +<p>The city of St. Andrews, when it had lost its archiepiscopal pre-eminence, +gradually decayed: One of its streets is now lost; and in those that +remain, there is silence and solitude of inactive indigence and gloomy +depopulation.</p> +<p>The university, within a few years, consisted of three colleges, +but is now reduced to two; the college of St. Leonard being lately dissolved +by the sale of its buildings and the appropriation of its revenues to +the professors of the two others. The chapel of the alienated +college is yet standing, a fabrick not inelegant of external structure; +but I was always, by some civil excuse, hindred from entering it. +A decent attempt, as I was since told, has been made to convert it into +a kind of green-house, by planting its area with shrubs. This +new method of gardening is unsuccessful; the plants do not hitherto +prosper. To what use it will next be put I have no pleasure in +conjecturing. It is something that its present state is at least +not ostentatiously displayed. Where there is yet shame, there +may in time be virtue.</p> +<p>The dissolution of St. Leonard’s college was doubtless necessary; +but of that necessity there is reason to complain. It is surely +not without just reproach, that a nation, of which the commerce is hourly +extending, and the wealth encreasing, denies any participation of its +prosperity to its literary societies; and while its merchants or its +nobles are raising palaces, suffers its universities to moulder into +dust.</p> +<p>Of the two colleges yet standing, one is by the institution of its +founder appropriated to Divinity. It is said to be capable of +containing fifty students; but more than one must occupy a chamber. +The library, which is of late erection, is not very spacious, but elegant +and luminous.</p> +<p>The doctor, by whom it was shewn, hoped to irritate or subdue my +English vanity by telling me, that we had no such repository of books +in England.</p> +<p>Saint Andrews seems to be a place eminently adapted to study and +education, being situated in a populous, yet a cheap country, and exposing +the minds and manners of young men neither to the levity and dissoluteness +of a capital city, nor to the gross luxury of a town of commerce, places +naturally unpropitious to learning; in one the desire of knowledge easily +gives way to the love of pleasure, and in the other, is in danger of +yielding to the love of money.</p> +<p>The students however are represented as at this time not exceeding +a hundred. Perhaps it may be some obstruction to their increase +that there is no episcopal chapel in the place. I saw no reason +for imputing their paucity to the present professors; nor can the expence +of an academical education be very reasonably objected. A student +of the highest class may keep his annual session, or as the English +call it, his term, which lasts seven months, for about fifteen pounds, +and one of lower rank for less than ten; in which board, lodging, and +instruction are all included.</p> +<p>The chief magistrate resident in the university, answering to our +vice-chancellor, and to the <i>rector magnificus</i> on the continent, +had commonly the title of Lord Rector; but being addressed only as Mr. +Rector in an inauguratory speech by the present chancellor, he has fallen +from his former dignity of style. Lordship was very liberally +annexed by our ancestors to any station or character of dignity: They +said, the Lord General, and Lord Ambassador; so we still say, my Lord, +to the judge upon the circuit, and yet retain in our Liturgy the Lords +of the Council.</p> +<p>In walking among the ruins of religious buildings, we came to two +vaults over which had formerly stood the house of the sub-prior. +One of the vaults was inhabited by an old woman, who claimed the right +of abode there, as the widow of a man whose ancestors had possessed +the same gloomy mansion for no less than four generations. The +right, however it began, was considered as established by legal prescription, +and the old woman lives undisturbed. She thinks however that she +has a claim to something more than sufferance; for as her husband’s +name was Bruce, she is allied to royalty, and told Mr. Boswell that +when there were persons of quality in the place, she was distinguished +by some notice; that indeed she is now neglected, but she spins a thread, +has the company of her cat, and is troublesome to nobody.</p> +<p>Having now seen whatever this ancient city offered to our curiosity, +we left it with good wishes, having reason to be highly pleased with +the attention that was paid us. But whoever surveys the world +must see many things that give him pain. The kindness of the professors +did not contribute to abate the uneasy remembrance of an university +declining, a college alienated, and a church profaned and hastening +to the ground.</p> +<p>St. Andrews indeed has formerly suffered more atrocious ravages and +more extensive destruction, but recent evils affect with greater force. +We were reconciled to the sight of archiepiscopal ruins. The distance +of a calamity from the present time seems to preclude the mind from +contact or sympathy. Events long past are barely known; they are +not considered. We read with as little emotion the violence of +Knox and his followers, as the irruptions of Alaric and the Goths. +Had the university been destroyed two centuries ago, we should not have +regretted it; but to see it pining in decay and struggling for life, +fills the mind with mournful images and ineffectual wishes.</p> +<h2>ABERBROTHICK</h2> +<p>As we knew sorrow and wishes to be vain, it was now our business +to mind our way. The roads of Scotland afford little diversion +to the traveller, who seldom sees himself either encountered or overtaken, +and who has nothing to contemplate but grounds that have no visible +boundaries, or are separated by walls of loose stone. From the +bank of the Tweed to St. Andrews I had never seen a single tree, which +I did not believe to have grown up far within the present century. +Now and then about a gentleman’s house stands a small plantation, +which in Scotch is called a policy, but of these there are few, and +those few all very young. The variety of sun and shade is here +utterly unknown. There is no tree for either shelter or timber. +The oak and the thorn is equally a stranger, and the whole country is +extended in uniform nakedness, except that in the road between Kirkaldy +and Cowpar, I passed for a few yards between two hedges. A tree +might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice. At St. Andrews +Mr. Boswell found only one, and recommended it to my notice; I told +him that it was rough and low, or looked as if I thought so. This, +said he, is nothing to another a few miles off. I was still less +delighted to hear that another tree was not to be seen nearer. +Nay, said a gentleman that stood by, I know but of this and that tree +in the county.</p> +<p>The Lowlands of Scotland had once undoubtedly an equal portion of +woods with other countries. Forests are every where gradually +diminished, as architecture and cultivation prevail by the increase +of people and the introduction of arts. But I believe few regions +have been denuded like this, where many centuries must have passed in +waste without the least thought of future supply. Davies observes +in his account of Ireland, that no Irishman had ever planted an orchard. +For that negligence some excuse might be drawn from an unsettled state +of life, and the instability of property; but in Scotland possession +has long been secure, and inheritance regular, yet it may be doubted +whether before the Union any man between Edinburgh and England had ever +set a tree.</p> +<p>Of this improvidence no other account can be given than that it probably +began in times of tumult, and continued because it had begun. +Established custom is not easily broken, till some great event shakes +the whole system of things, and life seems to recommence upon new principles. +That before the Union the Scots had little trade and little money, is +no valid apology; for plantation is the least expensive of all methods +of improvement. To drop a seed into the ground can cost nothing, +and the trouble is not great of protecting the young plant, till it +is out of danger; though it must be allowed to have some difficulty +in places like these, where they have neither wood for palisades, nor +thorns for hedges.</p> +<p>Our way was over the Firth of Tay, where, though the water was not +wide, we paid four shillings for ferrying the chaise. In Scotland +the necessaries of life are easily procured, but superfluities and elegancies +are of the same price at least as in England, and therefore may be considered +as much dearer.</p> +<p>We stopped a while at Dundee, where I remember nothing remarkable, +and mounting our chaise again, came about the close of the day to Aberbrothick.</p> +<p>The monastery of Aberbrothick is of great renown in the history of +Scotland. Its ruins afford ample testimony of its ancient magnificence: +Its extent might, I suppose, easily be found by following the walls +among the grass and weeds, and its height is known by some parts yet +standing. The arch of one of the gates is entire, and of another +only so far dilapidated as to diversify the appearance. A square +apartment of great loftiness is yet standing; its use I could not conjecture, +as its elevation was very disproportionate to its area. Two corner +towers, particularly attracted our attention. Mr. Boswell, whose +inquisitiveness is seconded by great activity, scrambled in at a high +window, but found the stairs within broken, and could not reach the +top. Of the other tower we were told that the inhabitants sometimes +climbed it, but we did not immediately discern the entrance, and as +the night was gathering upon us, thought proper to desist. Men +skilled in architecture might do what we did not attempt: They might +probably form an exact ground-plot of this venerable edifice. +They may from some parts yet standing conjecture its general form, and +perhaps by comparing it with other buildings of the same kind and the +same age, attain an idea very near to truth. I should scarcely +have regretted my journey, had it afforded nothing more than the sight +of Aberbrothick.</p> +<h2>MONTROSE</h2> +<p>Leaving these fragments of magnificence, we travelled on to Montrose, +which we surveyed in the morning, and found it well built, airy, and +clean. The townhouse is a handsome fabrick with a portico. +We then went to view the English chapel, and found a small church, clean +to a degree unknown in any other part of Scotland, with commodious galleries, +and what was yet less expected, with an organ.</p> +<p>At our inn we did not find a reception such as we thought proportionate +to the commercial opulence of the place; but Mr. Boswell desired me +to observe that the innkeeper was an Englishman, and I then defended +him as well as I could.</p> +<p>When I had proceeded thus far, I had opportunities of observing what +I had never heard, that there are many beggars in Scotland. In +Edinburgh the proportion is, I think, not less than in London, and in +the smaller places it is far greater than in English towns of the same +extent. It must, however, be allowed that they are not importunate, +nor clamorous. They solicit silently, or very modestly, and therefore +though their behaviour may strike with more force the heart of a stranger, +they are certainly in danger of missing the attention of their countrymen. +Novelty has always some power, an unaccustomed mode of begging excites +an unaccustomed degree of pity. But the force of novelty is by +its own nature soon at an end; the efficacy of outcry and perseverance +is permanent and certain.</p> +<p>The road from Montrose exhibited a continuation of the same appearances. +The country is still naked, the hedges are of stone, and the fields +so generally plowed that it is hard to imagine where grass is found +for the horses that till them. The harvest, which was almost ripe, +appeared very plentiful.</p> +<p>Early in the afternoon Mr. Boswell observed that we were at no great +distance from the house of lord Monboddo. The magnetism of his +conversation easily drew us out of our way, and the entertainment which +we received would have been a sufficient recompense for a much greater +deviation.</p> +<p>The roads beyond Edinburgh, as they are less frequented, must be +expected to grow gradually rougher; but they were hitherto by no means +incommodious. We travelled on with the gentle pace of a Scotch +driver, who having no rivals in expedition, neither gives himself nor +his horses unnecessary trouble. We did not affect the impatience +we did not feel, but were satisfied with the company of each other as +well riding in the chaise, as sitting at an inn. The night and +the day are equally solitary and equally safe; for where there are so +few travellers, why should there be robbers.</p> +<h2>ABERDEEN</h2> +<p>We came somewhat late to Aberdeen, and found the inn so full, that +we had some difficulty in obtaining admission, till Mr. Boswell made +himself known: His name overpowered all objection, and we found a very +good house and civil treatment.</p> +<p>I received the next day a very kind letter from Sir Alexander Gordon, +whom I had formerly known in London, and after a cessation of all intercourse +for near twenty years met here professor of physic in the King’s +College. Such unexpected renewals of acquaintance may be numbered +among the most pleasing incidents of life.</p> +<p>The knowledge of one professor soon procured me the notice of the +rest, and I did not want any token of regard, being conducted wherever +there was any thing which I desired to see, and entertained at once +with the novelty of the place, and the kindness of communication.</p> +<p>To write of the cities of our own island with the solemnity of geographical +description, as if we had been cast upon a newly discovered coast, has +the appearance of very frivolous ostentation; yet as Scotland is little +known to the greater part of those who may read these observations, +it is not superfluous to relate, that under the name of Aberdeen are +comprised two towns standing about a mile distant from each other, but +governed, I think, by the same magistrates.</p> +<p>Old Aberdeen is the ancient episcopal city, in which are still to +be seen the remains of the cathedral. It has the appearance of +a town in decay, having been situated in times when commerce was yet +unstudied, with very little attention to the commodities of the harbour.</p> +<p>New Aberdeen has all the bustle of prosperous trade, and all the +shew of increasing opulence. It is built by the water-side. +The houses are large and lofty, and the streets spacious and clean. +They build almost wholly with the granite used in the new pavement of +the streets of London, which is well known not to want hardness, yet +they shape it easily. It is beautiful and must be very lasting.</p> +<p>What particular parts of commerce are chiefly exercised by the merchants +of Aberdeen, I have not inquired. The manufacture which forces +itself upon a stranger’s eye is that of knit-stockings, on which +the women of the lower class are visibly employed.</p> +<p>In each of these towns there is a college, or in stricter language, +an university; for in both there are professors of the same parts of +learning, and the colleges hold their sessions and confer degrees separately, +with total independence of one on the other.</p> +<p>In old Aberdeen stands the King’s College, of which the first +president was Hector Boece, or Boethius, who may be justly reverenced +as one of the revivers of elegant learning. When he studied at +Paris, he was acquainted with Erasmus, who afterwards gave him a public +testimony of his esteem, by inscribing to him a catalogue of his works. +The stile of Boethius, though, perhaps, not always rigorously pure, +is formed with great diligence upon ancient models, and wholly uninfected +with monastic barbarity. His history is written with elegance +and vigour, but his fabulousness and credulity are justly blamed. +His fabulousness, if he was the author of the fictions, is a fault for +which no apology can be made; but his credulity may be excused in an +age, when all men were credulous. Learning was then rising on +the world; but ages so long accustomed to darkness, were too much dazzled +with its light to see any thing distinctly. The first race of +scholars, in the fifteenth century, and some time after, were, for the +most part, learning to speak, rather than to think, and were therefore +more studious of elegance than of truth. The contemporaries of +Boethius thought it sufficient to know what the ancients had delivered. +The examination of tenets and of facts was reserved for another generation.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>Boethius, as president of the university, enjoyed a revenue of forty +Scottish marks, about two pounds four shillings and sixpence of sterling +money. In the present age of trade and taxes, it is difficult +even for the imagination so to raise the value of money, or so to diminish +the demands of life, as to suppose four and forty shillings a year, +an honourable stipend; yet it was probably equal, not only to the needs, +but to the rank of Boethius. The wealth of England was undoubtedly +to that of Scotland more than five to one, and it is known that Henry +the eighth, among whose faults avarice was never reckoned, granted to +Roger Ascham, as a reward of his learning, a pension of ten pounds a +year.</p> +<p>The other, called the Marischal College, is in the new town. +The hall is large and well lighted. One of its ornaments is the +picture of Arthur Johnston, who was principal of the college, and who +holds among the Latin poets of Scotland the next place to the elegant +Buchanan.</p> +<p>In the library I was shewn some curiosities; a Hebrew manuscript +of exquisite penmanship, and a Latin translation of Aristotle’s +Politicks by Leonardus Aretinus, written in the Roman character with +nicety and beauty, which, as the art of printing has made them no longer +necessary, are not now to be found. This was one of the latest +performances of the transcribers, for Aretinus died but about twenty +years before typography was invented. This version has been printed, +and may be found in libraries, but is little read; for the same books +have been since translated both by Victorius and Lambinus, who lived +in an age more cultivated, but perhaps owed in part to Aretinus that +they were able to excel him. Much is due to those who first broke +the way to knowledge, and left only to their successors the task of +smoothing it.</p> +<p>In both these colleges the methods of instruction are nearly the +same; the lectures differing only by the accidental difference of diligence, +or ability in the professors. The students wear scarlet gowns +and the professors black, which is, I believe, the academical dress +in all the Scottish universities, except that of Edinburgh, where the +scholars are not distinguished by any particular habit. In the +King’s College there is kept a public table, but the scholars +of the Marischal College are boarded in the town. The expence +of living is here, according to the information that I could obtain, +somewhat more than at St. Andrews.</p> +<p>The course of education is extended to four years, at the end of +which those who take a degree, who are not many, become masters of arts, +and whoever is a master may, if he pleases, immediately commence doctor. +The title of doctor, however, was for a considerable time bestowed only +on physicians. The advocates are examined and approved by their +own body; the ministers were not ambitious of titles, or were afraid +of being censured for ambition; and the doctorate in every faculty was +commonly given or sold into other countries. The ministers are +now reconciled to distinction, and as it must always happen that some +will excel others, have thought graduation a proper testimony of uncommon +abilities or acquisitions.</p> +<p>The indiscriminate collation of degrees has justly taken away that +respect which they originally claimed as stamps, by which the literary +value of men so distinguished was authoritatively denoted. That +academical honours, or any others should be conferred with exact proportion +to merit, is more than human judgment or human integrity have given +reason to expect. Perhaps degrees in universities cannot be better +adjusted by any general rule than by the length of time passed in the +public profession of learning. An English or Irish doctorate cannot +be obtained by a very young man, and it is reasonable to suppose, what +is likewise by experience commonly found true, that he who is by age +qualified to be a doctor, has in so much time gained learning sufficient +not to disgrace the title, or wit sufficient not to desire it.</p> +<p>The Scotch universities hold but one term or session in the year. +That of St. Andrews continues eight months, that of Aberdeen only five, +from the first of November to the first of April.</p> +<p>In Aberdeen there is an English Chapel, in which the congregation +was numerous and splendid. The form of public worship used by +the church of England is in Scotland legally practised in licensed chapels +served by clergymen of English or Irish ordination, and by tacit connivance +quietly permitted in separate congregations supplied with ministers +by the successors of the bishops who were deprived at the Revolution.</p> +<p>We came to Aberdeen on Saturday August 21. On Monday we were +invited into the town-hall, where I had the freedom of the city given +me by the Lord Provost. The honour conferred had all the decorations +that politeness could add, and what I am afraid I should not have had +to say of any city south of the Tweed, I found no petty officer bowing +for a fee.</p> +<p>The parchment containing the record of admission is, with the seal +appending, fastened to a riband and worn for one day by the new citizen +in his hat.</p> +<p>By a lady who saw us at the chapel, the Earl of Errol was informed +of our arrival, and we had the honour of an invitation to his seat, +called Slanes Castle, as I am told, improperly, from the castle of that +name, which once stood at a place not far distant.</p> +<p>The road beyond Aberdeen grew more stony, and continued equally naked +of all vegetable decoration. We travelled over a tract of ground +near the sea, which, not long ago, suffered a very uncommon, and unexpected +calamity. The sand of the shore was raised by a tempest in such +quantities, and carried to such a distance, that an estate was overwhelmed +and lost. Such and so hopeless was the barrenness superinduced, +that the owner, when he was required to pay the usual tax, desired rather +to resign the ground.</p> +<h2>SLANES CASTLE, THE BULLER OF BUCHAN</h2> +<p>We came in the afternoon to Slanes Castle, built upon the margin +of the sea, so that the walls of one of the towers seem only a continuation +of a perpendicular rock, the foot of which is beaten by the waves. +To walk round the house seemed impracticable. From the windows +the eye wanders over the sea that separates Scotland from Norway, and +when the winds beat with violence must enjoy all the terrifick grandeur +of the tempestuous ocean. I would not for my amusement wish for +a storm; but as storms, whether wished or not, will sometimes happen, +I may say, without violation of humanity, that I should willingly look +out upon them from Slanes Castle.</p> +<p>When we were about to take our leave, our departure was prohibited +by the countess till we should have seen two places upon the coast, +which she rightly considered as worthy of curiosity, Dun Buy, and the +Buller of Buchan, to which Mr. Boyd very kindly conducted us.</p> +<p>Dun Buy, which in Erse is said to signify the Yellow Rock, is a double +protuberance of stone, open to the main sea on one side, and parted +from the land by a very narrow channel on the other. It has its +name and its colour from the dung of innumerable sea-fowls, which in +the Spring chuse this place as convenient for incubation, and have their +eggs and their young taken in great abundance. One of the birds +that frequent this rock has, as we were told, its body not larger than +a duck’s, and yet lays eggs as large as those of a goose. +This bird is by the inhabitants named a Coot. That which is called +Coot in England, is here a Cooter.</p> +<p>Upon these rocks there was nothing that could long detain attention, +and we soon turned our eyes to the Buller, or Bouilloir of Buchan, which +no man can see with indifference, who has either sense of danger or +delight in rarity. It is a rock perpendicularly tubulated, united +on one side with a high shore, and on the other rising steep to a great +height, above the main sea. The top is open, from which may be +seen a dark gulf of water which flows into the cavity, through a breach +made in the lower part of the inclosing rock. It has the appearance +of a vast well bordered with a wall. The edge of the Buller is +not wide, and to those that walk round, appears very narrow. He +that ventures to look downward sees, that if his foot should slip, he +must fall from his dreadful elevation upon stones on one side, or into +water on the other. We however went round, and were glad when +the circuit was completed.</p> +<p>When we came down to the sea, we saw some boats, and rowers, and +resolved to explore the Buller at the bottom. We entered the arch, +which the water had made, and found ourselves in a place, which, though +we could not think ourselves in danger, we could scarcely survey without +some recoil of the mind. The bason in which we floated was nearly +circular, perhaps thirty yards in diameter. We were inclosed by +a natural wall, rising steep on every side to a height which produced +the idea of insurmountable confinement. The interception of all +lateral light caused a dismal gloom. Round us was a perpendicular +rock, above us the distant sky, and below an unknown profundity of water. +If I had any malice against a walking spirit, instead of laying him +in the Red-sea, I would condemn him to reside in the Buller of Buchan.</p> +<p>But terrour without danger is only one of the sports of fancy, a +voluntary agitation of the mind that is permitted no longer than it +pleases. We were soon at leisure to examine the place with minute +inspection, and found many cavities which, as the waterman told us, +went backward to a depth which they had never explored. Their +extent we had not time to try; they are said to serve different purposes. +Ladies come hither sometimes in the summer with collations, and smugglers +make them storehouses for clandestine merchandise. It is hardly +to be doubted but the pirates of ancient times often used them as magazines +of arms, or repositories of plunder.</p> +<p>To the little vessels used by the northern rovers, the Buller may +have served as a shelter from storms, and perhaps as a retreat from +enemies; the entrance might have been stopped, or guarded with little +difficulty, and though the vessels that were stationed within would +have been battered with stones showered on them from above, yet the +crews would have lain safe in the caverns.</p> +<p>Next morning we continued our journey, pleased with our reception +at Slanes Castle, of which we had now leisure to recount the grandeur +and the elegance; for our way afforded us few topics of conversation. +The ground was neither uncultivated nor unfruitful; but it was still +all arable. Of flocks or herds there was no appearance. +I had now travelled two hundred miles in Scotland, and seen only one +tree not younger than myself.</p> +<h2>BAMFF</h2> +<p>We dined this day at the house of Mr. Frazer of Streichton, who shewed +us in his grounds some stones yet standing of a druidical circle, and +what I began to think more worthy of notice, some forest trees of full +growth.</p> +<p>At night we came to Bamff, where I remember nothing that particularly +claimed my attention. The ancient towns of Scotland have generally +an appearance unusual to Englishmen. The houses, whether great +or small, are for the most part built of stones. Their ends are +now and then next the streets, and the entrance into them is very often +by a flight of steps, which reaches up to the second story, the floor +which is level with the ground being entered only by stairs descending +within the house.</p> +<p>The art of joining squares of glass with lead is little used in Scotland, +and in some places is totally forgotten. The frames of their windows +are all of wood. They are more frugal of their glass than the +English, and will often, in houses not otherwise mean, compose a square +of two pieces, not joining like cracked glass, but with one edge laid +perhaps half an inch over the other. Their windows do not move +upon hinges, but are pushed up and drawn down in grooves, yet they are +seldom accommodated with weights and pullies. He that would have +his window open must hold it with his hand, unless what may be sometimes +found among good contrivers, there be a nail which he may stick into +a hole, to keep it from falling.</p> +<p>What cannot be done without some uncommon trouble or particular expedient, +will not often be done at all. The incommodiousness of the Scotch +windows keeps them very closely shut. The necessity of ventilating +human habitations has not yet been found by our northern neighbours; +and even in houses well built and elegantly furnished, a stranger may +be sometimes forgiven, if he allows himself to wish for fresher air.</p> +<p>These diminutive observations seem to take away something from the +dignity of writing, and therefore are never communicated but with hesitation, +and a little fear of abasement and contempt. But it must be remembered, +that life consists not of a series of illustrious actions, or elegant +enjoyments; the greater part of our time passes in compliance with necessities, +in the performance of daily duties, in the removal of small inconveniences, +in the procurement of petty pleasures; and we are well or ill at ease, +as the main stream of life glides on smoothly, or is ruffled by small +obstacles and frequent interruption. The true state of every nation +is the state of common life. The manners of a people are not to +be found in the schools of learning, or the palaces of greatness, where +the national character is obscured or obliterated by travel or instruction, +by philosophy or vanity; nor is public happiness to be estimated by +the assemblies of the gay, or the banquets of the rich. The great +mass of nations is neither rich nor gay: they whose aggregate constitutes +the people, are found in the streets, and the villages, in the shops +and farms; and from them collectively considered, must the measure of +general prosperity be taken. As they approach to delicacy a nation +is refined, as their conveniences are multiplied, a nation, at least +a commercial nation, must be denominated wealthy.</p> +<h2>ELGIN</h2> +<p>Finding nothing to detain us at Bamff, we set out in the morning, +and having breakfasted at Cullen, about noon came to Elgin, where in +the inn, that we supposed the best, a dinner was set before us, which +we could not eat. This was the first time, and except one, the +last, that I found any reason to complain of a Scotish table; and such +disappointments, I suppose, must be expected in every country, where +there is no great frequency of travellers.</p> +<p>The ruins of the cathedral of Elgin afforded us another proof of +the waste of reformation. There is enough yet remaining to shew, +that it was once magnificent. Its whole plot is easily traced. +On the north side of the choir, the chapter-house, which is roofed with +an arch of stone, remains entire; and on the south side, another mass +of building, which we could not enter, is preserved by the care of the +family of Gordon; but the body of the church is a mass of fragments.</p> +<p>A paper was here put into our hands, which deduced from sufficient +authorities the history of this venerable ruin. The church of +Elgin had, in the intestine tumults of the barbarous ages, been laid +waste by the irruption of a highland chief, whom the bishop had offended; +but it was gradually restored to the state, of which the traces may +be now discerned, and was at last not destroyed by the tumultuous violence +of Knox, but more shamefully suffered to dilapidate by deliberate robbery +and frigid indifference. There is still extant, in the books of +the council, an order, of which I cannot remember the date, but which +was doubtless issued after the Reformation, directing that the lead, +which covers the two cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen, shall be taken +away, and converted into money for the support of the army. A +Scotch army was in those times very cheaply kept; yet the lead of two +churches must have born so small a proportion to any military expence, +that it is hard not to believe the reason alleged to be merely popular, +and the money intended for some private purse. The order however +was obeyed; the two churches were stripped, and the lead was shipped +to be sold in Holland. I hope every reader will rejoice that this +cargo of sacrilege was lost at sea.</p> +<p>Let us not however make too much haste to despise our neighbours. +Our own cathedrals are mouldering by unregarded dilapidation. +It seems to be part of the despicable philosophy of the time to despise +monuments of sacred magnificence, and we are in danger of doing that +deliberately, which the Scots did not do but in the unsettled state +of an imperfect constitution.</p> +<p>Those who had once uncovered the cathedrals never wished to cover +them again; and being thus made useless, they were, first neglected, +and perhaps, as the stone was wanted, afterwards demolished.</p> +<p>Elgin seems a place of little trade, and thinly inhabited. +The episcopal cities of Scotland, I believe, generally fell with their +churches, though some of them have since recovered by a situation convenient +for commerce. Thus Glasgow, though it has no longer an archbishop, +has risen beyond its original state by the opulence of its traders; +and Aberdeen, though its ancient stock had decayed, flourishes by a +new shoot in another place.</p> +<p>In the chief street of Elgin, the houses jut over the lowest story, +like the old buildings of timber in London, but with greater prominence; +so that there is sometimes a walk for a considerable length under a +cloister, or portico, which is now indeed frequently broken, because +the new houses have another form, but seems to have been uniformly continued +in the old city.</p> +<h2>FORES. CALDER. FORT GEORGE</h2> +<p>We went forwards the same day to Fores, the town to which Macbeth +was travelling, when he met the weird sisters in his way. This +to an Englishman is classic ground. Our imaginations were heated, +and our thoughts recalled to their old amusements.</p> +<p>We had now a prelude to the Highlands. We began to leave fertility +and culture behind us, and saw for a great length of road nothing but +heath; yet at Fochabars, a seat belonging to the duke of Gordon, there +is an orchard, which in Scotland I had never seen before, with some +timber trees, and a plantation of oaks.</p> +<p>At Fores we found good accommodation, but nothing worthy of particular +remark, and next morning entered upon the road, on which Macbeth heard +the fatal prediction; but we travelled on not interrupted by promises +of kingdoms, and came to Nairn, a royal burgh, which, if once it flourished, +is now in a state of miserable decay; but I know not whether its chief +annual magistrate has not still the title of Lord Provost.</p> +<p>At Nairn we may fix the verge of the Highlands; for here I first +saw peat fires, and first heard the Erse language. We had no motive +to stay longer than to breakfast, and went forward to the house of Mr. +Macaulay, the minister who published an account of St. Kilda, and by +his direction visited Calder Castle, from which Macbeth drew his second +title. It has been formerly a place of strength. The drawbridge +is still to be seen, but the moat is now dry. The tower is very +ancient: Its walls are of great thickness, arched on the top with stone, +and surrounded with battlements. The rest of the house is later, +though far from modern.</p> +<p>We were favoured by a gentleman, who lives in the castle, with a +letter to one of the officers at Fort George, which being the most regular +fortification in the island, well deserves the notice of a traveller, +who has never travelled before. We went thither next day, found +a very kind reception, were led round the works by a gentleman, who +explained the use of every part, and entertained by Sir Eyre Coote, +the governour, with such elegance of conversation as left us no attention +to the delicacies of his table.</p> +<p>Of Fort George I shall not attempt to give any account. I cannot +delineate it scientifically, and a loose and popular description is +of use only when the imagination is to be amused. There was every +where an appearance of the utmost neatness and regularity. But +my suffrage is of little value, because this and Fort Augustus are the +only garrisons that I ever saw.</p> +<p>We did not regret the time spent at the fort, though in consequence +of our delay we came somewhat late to Inverness, the town which may +properly be called the capital of the Highlands. Hither the inhabitants +of the inland parts come to be supplied with what they cannot make for +themselves: Hither the young nymphs of the mountains and valleys are +sent for education, and as far as my observation has reached, are not +sent in vain.</p> +<h2>INVERNESS</h2> +<p>Inverness was the last place which had a regular communication by +high roads with the southern counties. All the ways beyond it +have, I believe, been made by the soldiers in this century. At +Inverness therefore Cromwell, when he subdued Scotland, stationed a +garrison, as at the boundary of the Highlands. The soldiers seem +to have incorporated afterwards with the inhabitants, and to have peopled +the place with an English race; for the language of this town has been +long considered as peculiarly elegant.</p> +<p>Here is a castle, called the castle of Macbeth, the walls of which +are yet standing. It was no very capacious edifice, but stands +upon a rock so high and steep, that I think it was once not accessible, +but by the help of ladders, or a bridge. Over against it, on another +hill, was a fort built by Cromwell, now totally demolished; for no faction +of Scotland loved the name of Cromwell, or had any desire to continue +his memory.</p> +<p>Yet what the Romans did to other nations, was in a great degree done +by Cromwell to the Scots; he civilized them by conquest, and introduced +by useful violence the arts of peace. I was told at Aberdeen that +the people learned from Cromwell’s soldiers to make shoes and +to plant kail.</p> +<p>How they lived without kail, it is not easy to guess: They cultivate +hardly any other plant for common tables, and when they had not kail +they probably had nothing. The numbers that go barefoot are still +sufficient to shew that shoes may be spared: They are not yet considered +as necessaries of life; for tall boys, not otherwise meanly dressed, +run without them in the streets; and in the islands the sons of gentlemen +pass several of their first years with naked feet.</p> +<p>I know not whether it be not peculiar to the Scots to have attained +the liberal, without the manual arts, to have excelled in ornamental +knowledge, and to have wanted not only the elegancies, but the conveniences +of common life. Literature soon after its revival found its way +to Scotland, and from the middle of the sixteenth century, almost to +the middle of the seventeenth, the politer studies were very diligently +pursued. The Latin poetry of <i>Deliciæ Poëtarum Scotorum</i> +would have done honour to any nation, at least till the publication +of <i>May’s Supplement</i> the English had very little to oppose.</p> +<p>Yet men thus ingenious and inquisitive were content to live in total +ignorance of the trades by which human wants are supplied, and to supply +them by the grossest means. Till the Union made them acquainted +with English manners, the culture of their lands was unskilful, and +their domestick life unformed; their tables were coarse as the feasts +of Eskimeaux, and their houses filthy as the cottages of Hottentots.</p> +<p>Since they have known that their condition was capable of improvement, +their progress in useful knowledge has been rapid and uniform. +What remains to be done they will quickly do, and then wonder, like +me, why that which was so necessary and so easy was so long delayed. +But they must be for ever content to owe to the English that elegance +and culture, which, if they had been vigilant and active, perhaps the +English might have owed to them.</p> +<p>Here the appearance of life began to alter. I had seen a few +women with plaids at Aberdeen; but at Inverness the Highland manners +are common. There is I think a kirk, in which only the Erse language +is used. There is likewise an English chapel, but meanly built, +where on Sunday we saw a very decent congregation.</p> +<p>We were now to bid farewel to the luxury of travelling, and to enter +a country upon which perhaps no wheel has ever rolled. We could +indeed have used our post-chaise one day longer, along the military +road to Fort Augustus, but we could have hired no horses beyond Inverness, +and we were not so sparing of ourselves, as to lead them, merely that +we might have one day longer the indulgence of a carriage.</p> +<p>At Inverness therefore we procured three horses for ourselves and +a servant, and one more for our baggage, which was no very heavy load. +We found in the course of our journey the convenience of having disencumbered +ourselves, by laying aside whatever we could spare; for it is not to +be imagined without experience, how in climbing crags, and treading +bogs, and winding through narrow and obstructed passages, a little bulk +will hinder, and a little weight will burthen; or how often a man that +has pleased himself at home with his own resolution, will, in the hour +of darkness and fatigue, be content to leave behind him every thing +but himself.</p> +<h2>LOUGH NESS</h2> +<p>We took two Highlanders to run beside us, partly to shew us the way, +and partly to take back from the sea-side the horses, of which they +were the owners. One of them was a man of great liveliness and +activity, of whom his companion said, that he would tire any horse in +Inverness. Both of them were civil and ready-handed. Civility +seems part of the national character of Highlanders. Every chieftain +is a monarch, and politeness, the natural product of royal government, +is diffused from the laird through the whole clan. But they are +not commonly dexterous: their narrowness of life confines them to a +few operations, and they are accustomed to endure little wants more +than to remove them.</p> +<p>We mounted our steeds on the thirtieth of August, and directed our +guides to conduct us to Fort Augustus. It is built at the head +of Lough Ness, of which Inverness stands at the outlet. The way +between them has been cut by the soldiers, and the greater part of it +runs along a rock, levelled with great labour and exactness, near the +water-side.</p> +<p>Most of this day’s journey was very pleasant. The day, +though bright, was not hot; and the appearance of the country, if I +had not seen the Peak, would have been wholly new. We went upon +a surface so hard and level, that we had little care to hold the bridle, +and were therefore at full leisure for contemplation. On the left +were high and steep rocks shaded with birch, the hardy native of the +North, and covered with fern or heath. On the right the limpid +waters of Lough Ness were beating their bank, and waving their surface +by a gentle agitation. Beyond them were rocks sometimes covered +with verdure, and sometimes towering in horrid nakedness. Now +and then we espied a little cornfield, which served to impress more +strongly the general barrenness.</p> +<p>Lough Ness is about twenty-four miles long, and from one mile to +two miles broad. It is remarkable that Boethius, in his description +of Scotland, gives it twelve miles of breadth. When historians +or geographers exhibit false accounts of places far distant, they may +be forgiven, because they can tell but what they are told; and that +their accounts exceed the truth may be justly supposed, because most +men exaggerate to others, if not to themselves: but Boethius lived at +no great distance; if he never saw the lake, he must have been very +incurious, and if he had seen it, his veracity yielded to very slight +temptations.</p> +<p>Lough Ness, though not twelve miles broad, is a very remarkable diffusion +of water without islands. It fills a large hollow between two +ridges of high rocks, being supplied partly by the torrents which fall +into it on either side, and partly, as is supposed, by springs at the +bottom. Its water is remarkably clear and pleasant, and is imagined +by the natives to be medicinal. We were told, that it is in some +places a hundred and forty fathoms deep, a profundity scarcely credible, +and which probably those that relate it have never sounded. Its +fish are salmon, trout, and pike.</p> +<p>It was said at fort Augustus, that Lough Ness is open in the hardest +winters, though a lake not far from it is covered with ice. In +discussing these exceptions from the course of nature, the first question +is, whether the fact be justly stated. That which is strange is +delightful, and a pleasing error is not willingly detected. Accuracy +of narration is not very common, and there are few so rigidly philosophical, +as not to represent as perpetual, what is only frequent, or as constant, +what is really casual. If it be true that Lough Ness never freezes, +it is either sheltered by its high banks from the cold blasts, and exposed +only to those winds which have more power to agitate than congeal; or +it is kept in perpetual motion by the rush of streams from the rocks +that inclose it. Its profundity though it should be such as is +represented can have little part in this exemption; for though deep +wells are not frozen, because their water is secluded from the external +air, yet where a wide surface is exposed to the full influence of a +freezing atmosphere, I know not why the depth should keep it open. +Natural philosophy is now one of the favourite studies of the Scottish +nation, and Lough Ness well deserves to be diligently examined.</p> +<p>The road on which we travelled, and which was itself a source of +entertainment, is made along the rock, in the direction of the lough, +sometimes by breaking off protuberances, and sometimes by cutting the +great mass of stone to a considerable depth. The fragments are +piled in a loose wall on either side, with apertures left at very short +spaces, to give a passage to the wintry currents. Part of it is +bordered with low trees, from which our guides gathered nuts, and would +have had the appearance of an English lane, except that an English lane +is almost always dirty. It has been made with great labour, but +has this advantage, that it cannot, without equal labour, be broken +up.</p> +<p>Within our sight there were goats feeding or playing. The mountains +have red deer, but they came not within view; and if what is said of +their vigilance and subtlety be true, they have some claim to that palm +of wisdom, which the eastern philosopher, whom Alexander interrogated, +gave to those beasts which live furthest from men.</p> +<p>Near the way, by the water side, we espied a cottage. This +was the first Highland Hut that I had seen; and as our business was +with life and manners, we were willing to visit it. To enter a +habitation without leave, seems to be not considered here as rudeness +or intrusion. The old laws of hospitality still give this licence +to a stranger.</p> +<p>A hut is constructed with loose stones, ranged for the most part +with some tendency to circularity. It must be placed where the +wind cannot act upon it with violence, because it has no cement; and +where the water will run easily away, because it has no floor but the +naked ground. The wall, which is commonly about six feet high, +declines from the perpendicular a little inward. Such rafters +as can be procured are then raised for a roof, and covered with heath, +which makes a strong and warm thatch, kept from flying off by ropes +of twisted heath, of which the ends, reaching from the center of the +thatch to the top of the wall, are held firm by the weight of a large +stone. No light is admitted but at the entrance, and through a +hole in the thatch, which gives vent to the smoke. This hole is +not directly over the fire, lest the rain should extinguish it; and +the smoke therefore naturally fills the place before it escapes. +Such is the general structure of the houses in which one of the nations +of this opulent and powerful island has been hitherto content to live. +Huts however are not more uniform than palaces; and this which we were +inspecting was very far from one of the meanest, for it was divided +into several apartments; and its inhabitants possessed such property +as a pastoral poet might exalt into riches.</p> +<p>When we entered, we found an old woman boiling goats-flesh in a kettle. +She spoke little English, but we had interpreters at hand; and she was +willing enough to display her whole system of economy. She has +five children, of which none are yet gone from her. The eldest, +a boy of thirteen, and her husband, who is eighty years old, were at +work in the wood. Her two next sons were gone to Inverness to +buy meal, by which oatmeal is always meant. Meal she considered +as expensive food, and told us, that in Spring, when the goats gave +milk, the children could live without it. She is mistress of sixty +goats, and I saw many kids in an enclosure at the end of her house. +She had also some poultry. By the lake we saw a potatoe-garden, +and a small spot of ground on which stood four shucks, containing each +twelve sheaves of barley. She has all this from the labour of +their own hands, and for what is necessary to be bought, her kids and +her chickens are sent to market.</p> +<p>With the true pastoral hospitality, she asked us to sit down and +drink whisky. She is religious, and though the kirk is four miles +off, probably eight English miles, she goes thither every Sunday. +We gave her a shilling, and she begged snuff; for snuff is the luxury +of a Highland cottage.</p> +<p>Soon afterwards we came to the General’s Hut, so called because +it was the temporary abode of Wade, while he superintended the works +upon the road. It is now a house of entertainment for passengers, +and we found it not ill stocked with provisions.</p> +<h2>FALL OF FIERS</h2> +<p>Towards evening we crossed, by a bridge, the river which makes the +celebrated fall of Fiers. The country at the bridge strikes the +imagination with all the gloom and grandeur of Siberian solitude. +The way makes a flexure, and the mountains, covered with trees, rise +at once on the left hand and in the front. We desired our guides +to shew us the fall, and dismounting, clambered over very rugged crags, +till I began to wish that our curiosity might have been gratified with +less trouble and danger. We came at last to a place where we could +overlook the river, and saw a channel torn, as it seems, through black +piles of stone, by which the stream is obstructed and broken, till it +comes to a very steep descent, of such dreadful depth, that we were +naturally inclined to turn aside our eyes.</p> +<p>But we visited the place at an unseasonable time, and found it divested +of its dignity and terror. Nature never gives every thing at once. +A long continuance of dry weather, which made the rest of the way easy +and delightful, deprived us of the pleasure expected from the fall of +Fiers. The river having now no water but what the springs supply, +showed us only a swift current, clear and shallow, fretting over the +asperities of the rocky bottom, and we were left to exercise our thoughts, +by endeavouring to conceive the effect of a thousand streams poured +from the mountains into one channel, struggling for expansion in a narrow +passage, exasperated by rocks rising in their way, and at last discharging +all their violence of waters by a sudden fall through the horrid chasm.</p> +<p>The way now grew less easy, descending by an uneven declivity, but +without either dirt or danger. We did not arrive at Fort Augustus +till it was late. Mr. Boswell, who, between his father’s +merit and his own, is sure of reception wherever he comes, sent a servant +before to beg admission and entertainment for that night. Mr. +Trapaud, the governor, treated us with that courtesy which is so closely +connected with the military character. He came out to meet us +beyond the gates, and apologized that, at so late an hour, the rules +of a garrison suffered him to give us entrance only at the postern.</p> +<h2>FORT AUGUSTUS</h2> +<p>In the morning we viewed the fort, which is much less than that of +St. George, and is said to be commanded by the neighbouring hills. +It was not long ago taken by the Highlanders. But its situation +seems well chosen for pleasure, if not for strength; it stands at the +head of the lake, and, by a sloop of sixty tuns, is supplied from Inverness +with great convenience.</p> +<p>We were now to cross the Highlands towards the western coast, and +to content ourselves with such accommodations, as a way so little frequented +could afford. The journey was not formidable, for it was but of +two days, very unequally divided, because the only house, where we could +be entertained, was not further off than a third of the way. We +soon came to a high hill, which we mounted by a military road, cut in +traverses, so that as we went upon a higher stage, we saw the baggage +following us below in a contrary direction. To make this way, +the rock has been hewn to a level with labour that might have broken +the perseverance of a Roman legion.</p> +<p>The country is totally denuded of its wood, but the stumps both of +oaks and firs, which are still found, shew that it has been once a forest +of large timber. I do not remember that we saw any animals, but +we were told that, in the mountains, there are stags, roebucks, goats +and rabbits.</p> +<p>We did not perceive that this tract was possessed by human beings, +except that once we saw a corn field, in which a lady was walking with +some gentlemen. Their house was certainly at no great distance, +but so situated that we could not descry it.</p> +<p>Passing on through the dreariness of solitude, we found a party of +soldiers from the fort, working on the road, under the superintendence +of a serjeant. We told them how kindly we had been treated at +the garrison, and as we were enjoying the benefit of their labours, +begged leave to shew our gratitude by a small present.</p> +<h2>ANOCH</h2> +<p>Early in the afternoon we came to Anoch, a village in Glenmollison +of three huts, one of which is distinguished by a chimney. Here +we were to dine and lodge, and were conducted through the first room, +that had the chimney, into another lighted by a small glass window. +The landlord attended us with great civility, and told us what he could +give us to eat and drink. I found some books on a shelf, among +which were a volume or more of Prideaux’s Connection.</p> +<p>This I mentioned as something unexpected, and perceived that I did +not please him. I praised the propriety of his language, and was +answered that I need not wonder, for he had learned it by grammar.</p> +<p>By subsequent opportunities of observation, I found that my host’s +diction had nothing peculiar. Those Highlanders that can speak +English, commonly speak it well, with few of the words, and little of +the tone by which a Scotchman is distinguished. Their language +seems to have been learned in the army or the navy, or by some communication +with those who could give them good examples of accent and pronunciation. +By their Lowland neighbours they would not willingly be taught; for +they have long considered them as a mean and degenerate race. +These prejudices are wearing fast away; but so much of them still remains, +that when I asked a very learned minister in the islands, which they +considered as their most savage clans: ‘Those,’ said he, +‘that live next the Lowlands.’</p> +<p>As we came hither early in the day, we had time sufficient to survey +the place. The house was built like other huts of loose stones, +but the part in which we dined and slept was lined with turf and wattled +with twigs, which kept the earth from falling. Near it was a garden +of turnips and a field of potatoes. It stands in a glen, or valley, +pleasantly watered by a winding river. But this country, however +it may delight the gazer or amuse the naturalist, is of no great advantage +to its owners. Our landlord told us of a gentleman, who possesses +lands, eighteen Scotch miles in length, and three in breadth; a space +containing at least a hundred square English miles. He has raised +his rents, to the danger of depopulating his farms, and he fells his +timber, and by exerting every art of augmentation, has obtained an yearly +revenue of four hundred pounds, which for a hundred square miles is +three halfpence an acre.</p> +<p>Some time after dinner we were surprised by the entrance of a young +woman, not inelegant either in mien or dress, who asked us whether we +would have tea. We found that she was the daughter of our host, +and desired her to make it. Her conversation, like her appearance, +was gentle and pleasing. We knew that the girls of the Highlands +are all gentlewomen, and treated her with great respect, which she received +as customary and due, and was neither elated by it, nor confused, but +repaid my civilities without embarassment, and told me how much I honoured +her country by coming to survey it.</p> +<p>She had been at Inverness to gain the common female qualifications, +and had, like her father, the English pronunciation. I presented +her with a book, which I happened to have about me, and should not be +pleased to think that she forgets me.</p> +<p>In the evening the soldiers, whom we had passed on the road, came +to spend at our inn the little money that we had given them. They +had the true military impatience of coin in their pockets, and had marched +at least six miles to find the first place where liquor could be bought. +Having never been before in a place so wild and unfrequented, I was +glad of their arrival, because I knew that we had made them friends, +and to gain still more of their good will, we went to them, where they +were carousing in the barn, and added something to our former gift. +All that we gave was not much, but it detained them in the barn, either +merry or quarrelling, the whole night, and in the morning they went +back to their work, with great indignation at the bad qualities of whisky.</p> +<p>We had gained so much the favour of our host, that, when we left +his house in the morning, he walked by us a great way, and entertained +us with conversation both on his own condition, and that of the country. +His life seemed to be merely pastoral, except that he differed from +some of the ancient Nomades in having a settled dwelling. His +wealth consists of one hundred sheep, as many goats, twelve milk-cows, +and twenty-eight beeves ready for the drover.</p> +<p>From him we first heard of the general dissatisfaction, which is +now driving the Highlanders into the other hemisphere; and when I asked +him whether they would stay at home, if they were well treated, he answered +with indignation, that no man willingly left his native country. +Of the farm, which he himself occupied, the rent had, in twenty-five +years, been advanced from five to twenty pounds, which he found himself +so little able to pay, that he would be glad to try his fortune in some +other place. Yet he owned the reasonableness of raising the Highland +rents in a certain degree, and declared himself willing to pay ten pounds +for the ground which he had formerly had for five.</p> +<p>Our host having amused us for a time, resigned us to our guides. +The journey of this day was long, not that the distance was great, but +that the way was difficult. We were now in the bosom of the Highlands, +with full leisure to contemplate the appearance and properties of mountainous +regions, such as have been, in many countries, the last shelters of +national distress, and are every where the scenes of adventures, stratagems, +surprises and escapes.</p> +<p>Mountainous countries are not passed but with difficulty, not merely +from the labour of climbing; for to climb is not always necessary: but +because that which is not mountain is commonly bog, through which the +way must be picked with caution. Where there are hills, there +is much rain, and the torrents pouring down into the intermediate spaces, +seldom find so ready an outlet, as not to stagnate, till they have broken +the texture of the ground.</p> +<p>Of the hills, which our journey offered to the view on either side, +we did not take the height, nor did we see any that astonished us with +their loftiness. Towards the summit of one, there was a white +spot, which I should have called a naked rock, but the guides, who had +better eyes, and were acquainted with the phenomena of the country, +declared it to be snow. It had already lasted to the end of August, +and was likely to maintain its contest with the sun, till it should +be reinforced by winter.</p> +<p>The height of mountains philosophically considered is properly computed +from the surface of the next sea; but as it affects the eye or imagination +of the passenger, as it makes either a spectacle or an obstruction, +it must be reckoned from the place where the rise begins to make a considerable +angle with the plain. In extensive continents the land may, by +gradual elevation, attain great height, without any other appearance +than that of a plane gently inclined, and if a hill placed upon such +raised ground be described, as having its altitude equal to the whole +space above the sea, the representation will be fallacious.</p> +<p>These mountains may be properly enough measured from the inland base; +for it is not much above the sea. As we advanced at evening towards +the western coast, I did not observe the declivity to be greater than +is necessary for the discharge of the inland waters.</p> +<p>We passed many rivers and rivulets, which commonly ran with a clear +shallow stream over a hard pebbly bottom. These channels, which +seem so much wider than the water that they convey would naturally require, +are formed by the violence of wintry floods, produced by the accumulation +of innumerable streams that fall in rainy weather from the hills, and +bursting away with resistless impetuosity, make themselves a passage +proportionate to their mass.</p> +<p>Such capricious and temporary waters cannot be expected to produce +many fish. The rapidity of the wintry deluge sweeps them away, +and the scantiness of the summer stream would hardly sustain them above +the ground. This is the reason why in fording the northern rivers, +no fishes are seen, as in England, wandering in the water.</p> +<p>Of the hills many may be called with Homer’s Ida ‘abundant +in springs’, but few can deserve the epithet which he bestows +upon Pelion by ‘waving their leaves.’ They exhibit +very little variety; being almost wholly covered with dark heath, and +even that seems to be checked in its growth. What is not heath +is nakedness, a little diversified by now and then a stream rushing +down the steep. An eye accustomed to flowery pastures and waving +harvests is astonished and repelled by this wide extent of hopeless +sterility. The appearance is that of matter incapable of form +or usefulness, dismissed by nature from her care and disinherited of +her favours, left in its original elemental state, or quickened only +with one sullen power of useless vegetation.</p> +<p>It will very readily occur, that this uniformity of barrenness can +afford very little amusement to the traveller; that it is easy to sit +at home and conceive rocks and heath, and waterfalls; and that these +journeys are useless labours, which neither impregnate the imagination, +nor enlarge the understanding. It is true that of far the greater +part of things, we must content ourselves with such knowledge as description +may exhibit, or analogy supply; but it is true likewise, that these +ideas are always incomplete, and that at least, till we have compared +them with realities, we do not know them to be just. As we see +more, we become possessed of more certainties, and consequently gain +more principles of reasoning, and found a wider basis of analogy.</p> +<p>Regions mountainous and wild, thinly inhabited, and little cultivated, +make a great part of the earth, and he that has never seen them, must +live unacquainted with much of the face of nature, and with one of the +great scenes of human existence.</p> +<p>As the day advanced towards noon, we entered a narrow valley not +very flowery, but sufficiently verdant. Our guides told us, that +the horses could not travel all day without rest or meat, and intreated +us to stop here, because no grass would be found in any other place. +The request was reasonable and the argument cogent. We therefore +willingly dismounted and diverted ourselves as the place gave us opportunity.</p> +<p>I sat down on a bank, such as a writer of Romance might have delighted +to feign. I had indeed no trees to whisper over my head, but a +clear rivulet streamed at my feet. The day was calm, the air soft, +and all was rudeness, silence, and solitude. Before me, and on +either side, were high hills, which by hindering the eye from ranging, +forced the mind to find entertainment for itself. Whether I spent +the hour well I know not; for here I first conceived the thought of +this narration.</p> +<p>We were in this place at ease and by choice, and had no evils to +suffer or to fear; yet the imaginations excited by the view of an unknown +and untravelled wilderness are not such as arise in the artificial solitude +of parks and gardens, a flattering notion of self-sufficiency, a placid +indulgence of voluntary delusions, a secure expansion of the fancy, +or a cool concentration of the mental powers. The phantoms which +haunt a desert are want, and misery, and danger; the evils of dereliction +rush upon the thoughts; man is made unwillingly acquainted with his +own weakness, and meditation shows him only how little he can sustain, +and how little he can perform. There were no traces of inhabitants, +except perhaps a rude pile of clods called a summer hut, in which a +herdsman had rested in the favourable seasons. Whoever had been +in the place where I then sat, unprovided with provisions and ignorant +of the country, might, at least before the roads were made, have wandered +among the rocks, till he had perished with hardship, before he could +have found either food or shelter. Yet what are these hillocks +to the ridges of Taurus, or these spots of wildness to the desarts of +America?</p> +<p>It was not long before we were invited to mount, and continued our +journey along the side of a lough, kept full by many streams, which +with more or less rapidity and noise, crossed the road from the hills +on the other hand. These currents, in their diminished state, +after several dry months, afford, to one who has always lived in level +countries, an unusual and delightful spectacle; but in the rainy season, +such as every winter may be expected to bring, must precipitate an impetuous +and tremendous flood. I suppose the way by which we went, is at +that time impassable.</p> +<h2>GLENSHEALS</h2> +<p>The lough at last ended in a river broad and shallow like the rest, +but that it may be passed when it is deeper, there is a bridge over +it. Beyond it is a valley called Glensheals, inhabited by the +clan of Macrae. Here we found a village called Auknasheals, consisting +of many huts, perhaps twenty, built all of dry-stone, that is, stones +piled up without mortar.</p> +<p>We had, by the direction of the officers at Fort Augustus, taken +bread for ourselves, and tobacco for those Highlanders who might show +us any kindness. We were now at a place where we could obtain +milk, but we must have wanted bread if we had not brought it. +The people of this valley did not appear to know any English, and our +guides now became doubly necessary as interpreters. A woman, whose +hut was distinguished by greater spaciousness and better architecture, +brought out some pails of milk. The villagers gathered about us +in considerable numbers, I believe without any evil intention, but with +a very savage wildness of aspect and manner. When our meal was +over, Mr. Boswell sliced the bread, and divided it amongst them, as +he supposed them never to have tasted a wheaten loaf before. He +then gave them little pieces of twisted tobacco, and among the children +we distributed a small handful of halfpence, which they received with +great eagerness. Yet I have been since told, that the people of +that valley are not indigent; and when we mentioned them afterwards +as needy and pitiable, a Highland lady let us know, that we might spare +our commiseration; for the dame whose milk we drank had probably more +than a dozen milk-cows. She seemed unwilling to take any price, +but being pressed to make a demand, at last named a shilling. +Honesty is not greater where elegance is less. One of the bystanders, +as we were told afterwards, advised her to ask for more, but she said +a shilling was enough. We gave her half a crown, and I hope got +some credit for our behaviour; for the company said, if our interpreters +did not flatter us, that they had not seen such a day since the old +laird of Macleod passed through their country.</p> +<p>The Macraes, as we heard afterwards in the Hebrides, were originally +an indigent and subordinate clan, and having no farms nor stock, were +in great numbers servants to the Maclellans, who, in the war of Charles +the First, took arms at the call of the heroic Montrose, and were, in +one of his battles, almost all destroyed. The women that were +left at home, being thus deprived of their husbands, like the Scythian +ladies of old, married their servants, and the Macraes became a considerable +race.</p> +<h2>THE HIGHLANDS</h2> +<p>As we continued our journey, we were at leisure to extend our speculations, +and to investigate the reason of those peculiarities by which such rugged +regions as these before us are generally distinguished.</p> +<p>Mountainous countries commonly contain the original, at least the +oldest race of inhabitants, for they are not easily conquered, because +they must be entered by narrow ways, exposed to every power of mischief +from those that occupy the heights; and every new ridge is a new fortress, +where the defendants have again the same advantages. If the assailants +either force the strait, or storm the summit, they gain only so much +ground; their enemies are fled to take possession of the next rock, +and the pursuers stand at gaze, knowing neither where the ways of escape +wind among the steeps, nor where the bog has firmness to sustain them: +besides that, mountaineers have an agility in climbing and descending +distinct from strength or courage, and attainable only by use.</p> +<p>If the war be not soon concluded, the invaders are dislodged by hunger; +for in those anxious and toilsome marches, provisions cannot easily +be carried, and are never to be found. The wealth of mountains +is cattle, which, while the men stand in the passes, the women drive +away. Such lands at last cannot repay the expence of conquest, +and therefore perhaps have not been so often invaded by the mere ambition +of dominion; as by resentment of robberies and insults, or the desire +of enjoying in security the more fruitful provinces.</p> +<p>As mountains are long before they are conquered, they are likewise +long before they are civilized. Men are softened by intercourse +mutually profitable, and instructed by comparing their own notions with +those of others. Thus Cæsar found the maritime parts of +Britain made less barbarous by their commerce with the Gauls. +Into a barren and rough tract no stranger is brought either by the hope +of gain or of pleasure. The inhabitants having neither commodities +for sale, nor money for purchase, seldom visit more polished places, +or if they do visit them, seldom return.</p> +<p>It sometimes happens that by conquest, intermixture, or gradual refinement, +the cultivated parts of a country change their language. The mountaineers +then become a distinct nation, cut off by dissimilitude of speech from +conversation with their neighbours. Thus in Biscay, the original +Cantabrian, and in Dalecarlia, the old Swedish still subsists. +Thus Wales and the Highlands speak the tongue of the first inhabitants +of Britain, while the other parts have received first the Saxon, and +in some degree afterwards the French, and then formed a third language +between them.</p> +<p>That the primitive manners are continued where the primitive language +is spoken, no nation will desire me to suppose, for the manners of mountaineers +are commonly savage, but they are rather produced by their situation +than derived from their ancestors.</p> +<p>Such seems to be the disposition of man, that whatever makes a distinction +produces rivalry. England, before other causes of enmity were +found, was disturbed for some centuries by the contests of the northern +and southern counties; so that at Oxford, the peace of study could for +a long time be preserved only by chusing annually one of the Proctors +from each side of the Trent. A tract intersected by many ridges +of mountains, naturally divides its inhabitants into petty nations, +which are made by a thousand causes enemies to each other. Each +will exalt its own chiefs, each will boast the valour of its men, or +the beauty of its women, and every claim of superiority irritates competition; +injuries will sometimes be done, and be more injuriously defended; retaliation +will sometimes be attempted, and the debt exacted with too much interest.</p> +<p>In the Highlands it was a law, that if a robber was sheltered from +justice, any man of the same clan might be taken in his place. +This was a kind of irregular justice, which, though necessary in savage +times, could hardly fail to end in a feud, and a feud once kindled among +an idle people with no variety of pursuits to divert their thoughts, +burnt on for ages either sullenly glowing in secret mischief, or openly +blazing into public violence. Of the effects of this violent judicature, +there are not wanting memorials. The cave is now to be seen to +which one of the Campbells, who had injured the Macdonalds, retired +with a body of his own clan. The Macdonalds required the offender, +and being refused, made a fire at the mouth of the cave, by which he +and his adherents were suffocated together.</p> +<p>Mountaineers are warlike, because by their feuds and competitions +they consider themselves as surrounded with enemies, and are always +prepared to repel incursions, or to make them. Like the Greeks +in their unpolished state, described by Thucydides, the Highlanders, +till lately, went always armed, and carried their weapons to visits, +and to church.</p> +<p>Mountaineers are thievish, because they are poor, and having neither +manufactures nor commerce, can grow richer only by robbery. They +regularly plunder their neighbours, for their neighbours are commonly +their enemies; and having lost that reverence for property, by which +the order of civil life is preserved, soon consider all as enemies, +whom they do not reckon as friends, and think themselves licensed to +invade whatever they are not obliged to protect.</p> +<p>By a strict administration of the laws, since the laws have been +introduced into the Highlands, this disposition to thievery is very +much represt. Thirty years ago no herd had ever been conducted +through the mountains, without paying tribute in the night, to some +of the clans; but cattle are now driven, and passengers travel without +danger, fear, or molestation.</p> +<p>Among a warlike people, the quality of highest esteem is personal +courage, and with the ostentatious display of courage are closely connected +promptitude of offence and quickness of resentment. The Highlanders, +before they were disarmed, were so addicted to quarrels, that the boys +used to follow any publick procession or ceremony, however festive, +or however solemn, in expectation of the battle, which was sure to happen +before the company dispersed.</p> +<p>Mountainous regions are sometimes so remote from the seat of government, +and so difficult of access, that they are very little under the influence +of the sovereign, or within the reach of national justice. Law +is nothing without power; and the sentence of a distant court could +not be easily executed, nor perhaps very safely promulgated, among men +ignorantly proud and habitually violent, unconnected with the general +system, and accustomed to reverence only their own lords. It has +therefore been necessary to erect many particular jurisdictions, and +commit the punishment of crimes, and the decision of right to the proprietors +of the country who could enforce their own decrees. It immediately +appears that such judges will be often ignorant, and often partial; +but in the immaturity of political establishments no better expedient +could be found. As government advances towards perfection, provincial +judicature is perhaps in every empire gradually abolished.</p> +<p>Those who had thus the dispensation of law, were by consequence themselves +lawless. Their vassals had no shelter from outrages and oppressions; +but were condemned to endure, without resistance, the caprices of wantonness, +and the rage of cruelty.</p> +<p>In the Highlands, some great lords had an hereditary jurisdiction +over counties; and some chieftains over their own lands; till the final +conquest of the Highlands afforded an opportunity of crushing all the +local courts, and of extending the general benefits of equal law to +the low and the high, in the deepest recesses and obscurest corners.</p> +<p>While the chiefs had this resemblance of royalty, they had little +inclination to appeal, on any question, to superior judicatures. +A claim of lands between two powerful lairds was decided like a contest +for dominion between sovereign powers. They drew their forces +into the field, and right attended on the strongest. This was, +in ruder times, the common practice, which the kings of Scotland could +seldom control.</p> +<p>Even so lately as in the last years of King William, a battle was +fought at Mull Roy, on a plain a few miles to the south of Inverness, +between the clans of Mackintosh and Macdonald of Keppoch. Col. +Macdonald, the head of a small clan, refused to pay the dues demanded +from him by Mackintosh, as his superior lord. They disdained the +interposition of judges and laws, and calling each his followers to +maintain the dignity of the clan, fought a formal battle, in which several +considerable men fell on the side of Mackintosh, without a complete +victory to either. This is said to have been the last open war +made between the clans by their own authority.</p> +<p>The Highland lords made treaties, and formed alliances, of which +some traces may still be found, and some consequences still remain as +lasting evidences of petty regality. The terms of one of these +confederacies were, that each should support the other in the right, +or in the wrong, except against the king.</p> +<p>The inhabitants of mountains form distinct races, and are careful +to preserve their genealogies. Men in a small district necessarily +mingle blood by intermarriages, and combine at last into one family, +with a common interest in the honour and disgrace of every individual. +Then begins that union of affections, and co-operation of endeavours, +that constitute a clan. They who consider themselves as ennobled +by their family, will think highly of their progenitors, and they who +through successive generations live always together in the same place, +will preserve local stories and hereditary prejudices. Thus every +Highlander can talk of his ancestors, and recount the outrages which +they suffered from the wicked inhabitants of the next valley.</p> +<p>Such are the effects of habitation among mountains, and such were +the qualities of the Highlanders, while their rocks secluded them from +the rest of mankind, and kept them an unaltered and discriminated race. +They are now losing their distinction, and hastening to mingle with +the general community.</p> +<h2>GLENELG</h2> +<p>We left Auknasheals and the Macraes its the afternoon, and in the +evening came to Ratiken, a high hill on which a road is cut, but so +steep and narrow, that it is very difficult. There is now a design +of making another way round the bottom. Upon one of the precipices, +my horse, weary with the steepness of the rise, staggered a little, +and I called in haste to the Highlander to hold him. This was +the only moment of my journey, in which I thought myself endangered.</p> +<p>Having surmounted the hill at last, we were told that at Glenelg, +on the sea-side, we should come to a house of lime and slate and glass. +This image of magnificence raised our expectation. At last we +came to our inn weary and peevish, and began to inquire for meat and +beds.</p> +<p>Of the provisions the negative catalogue was very copious. +Here was no meat, no milk, no bread, no eggs, no wine. We did +not express much satisfaction. Here however we were to stay. +Whisky we might have, and I believe at last they caught a fowl and killed +it. We had some bread, and with that we prepared ourselves to +be contented, when we had a very eminent proof of Highland hospitality. +Along some miles of the way, in the evening, a gentleman’s servant +had kept us company on foot with very little notice on our part. +He left us near Glenelg, and we thought on him no more till he came +to us again, in about two hours, with a present from his master of rum +and sugar. The man had mentioned his company, and the gentleman, +whose name, I think, is Gordon, well knowing the penury of the place, +had this attention to two men, whose names perhaps he had not heard, +by whom his kindness was not likely to be ever repaid, and who could +be recommended to him only by their necessities.</p> +<p>We were now to examine our lodging. Out of one of the beds, +on which we were to repose, started up, at our entrance, a man black +as a Cyclops from the forge. Other circumstances of no elegant +recital concurred to disgust us. We had been frighted by a lady +at Edinburgh, with discouraging representations of Highland lodgings. +Sleep, however, was necessary. Our Highlanders had at last found +some hay, with which the inn could not supply them. I directed +them to bring a bundle into the room, and slept upon it in my riding +coat. Mr. Boswell being more delicate, laid himself sheets with +hay over and under him, and lay in linen like a gentleman.</p> +<h2>SKY. ARMIDEL</h2> +<p>In the morning, September the second, we found ourselves on the edge +of the sea. Having procured a boat, we dismissed our Highlanders, +whom I would recommend to the service of any future travellers, and +were ferried over to the Isle of Sky. We landed at Armidel, where +we were met on the sands by Sir Alexander Macdonald, who was at that +time there with his lady, preparing to leave the island and reside at +Edinburgh.</p> +<p>Armidel is a neat house, built where the Macdonalds had once a seat, +which was burnt in the commotions that followed the Revolution. +The walled orchard, which belonged to the former house, still remains. +It is well shaded by tall ash trees, of a species, as Mr. Janes the +fossilist informed me, uncommonly valuable. This plantation is +very properly mentioned by Dr. Campbell, in his new account of the state +of Britain, and deserves attention; because it proves that the present +nakedness of the Hebrides is not wholly the fault of Nature.</p> +<p>As we sat at Sir Alexander’s table, we were entertained, according +to the ancient usage of the North, with the melody of the bagpipe. +Everything in those countries has its history. As the bagpiper +was playing, an elderly Gentleman informed us, that in some remote time, +the Macdonalds of Glengary having been injured, or offended by the inhabitants +of Culloden, and resolving to have justice or vengeance, came to Culloden +on a Sunday, where finding their enemies at worship, they shut them +up in the church, which they set on fire; and this, said he, is the +tune that the piper played while they were burning.</p> +<p>Narrations like this, however uncertain, deserve the notice of the +traveller, because they are the only records of a nation that has no +historians, and afford the most genuine representation of the life and +character of the ancient Highlanders.</p> +<p>Under the denomination of Highlander are comprehended in Scotland +all that now speak the Erse language, or retain the primitive manners, +whether they live among the mountains or in the islands; and in that +sense I use the name, when there is not some apparent reason for making +a distinction.</p> +<p>In Sky I first observed the use of Brogues, a kind of artless shoes, +stitched with thongs so loosely, that though they defend the foot from +stones, they do not exclude water. Brogues were formerly made +of raw hides, with the hair inwards, and such are perhaps still used +in rude and remote parts; but they are said not to last above two days. +Where life is somewhat improved, they are now made of leather tanned +with oak bark, as in other places, or with the bark of birch, or roots +of tormentil, a substance recommended in defect of bark, about forty +years ago, to the Irish tanners, by one to whom the parliament of that +kingdom voted a reward. The leather of Sky is not completely penetrated +by vegetable matter, and therefore cannot be very durable.</p> +<p>My inquiries about brogues, gave me an early specimen of Highland +information. One day I was told, that to make brogues was a domestick +art, which every man practised for himself, and that a pair of brogues +was the work of an hour. I supposed that the husband made brogues +as the wife made an apron, till next day it was told me, that a brogue-maker +was a trade, and that a pair would cost half a crown. It will +easily occur that these representations may both be true, and that, +in some places, men may buy them, and in others, make them for themselves; +but I had both the accounts in the same house within two days.</p> +<p>Many of my subsequent inquiries upon more interesting topicks ended +in the like uncertainty. He that travels in the Highlands may +easily saturate his soul with intelligence, if he will acquiesce in +the first account. The Highlander gives to every question an answer +so prompt and peremptory, that skepticism itself is dared into silence, +and the mind sinks before the bold reporter in unresisting credulity; +but, if a second question be ventured, it breaks the enchantment; for +it is immediately discovered, that what was told so confidently was +told at hazard, and that such fearlessness of assertion was either the +sport of negligence, or the refuge of ignorance.</p> +<p>If individuals are thus at variance with themselves, it can be no +wonder that the accounts of different men are contradictory. The +traditions of an ignorant and savage people have been for ages negligently +heard, and unskilfully related. Distant events must have been +mingled together, and the actions of one man given to another. +These, however, are deficiencies in story, for which no man is now to +be censured. It were enough, if what there is yet opportunity +of examining were accurately inspected, and justly represented; but +such is the laxity of Highland conversation, that the inquirer is kept +in continual suspense, and by a kind of intellectual retrogradation, +knows less as he hears more.</p> +<p>In the islands the plaid is rarely worn. The law by which the +Highlanders have been obliged to change the form of their dress, has, +in all the places that we have visited, been universally obeyed. +I have seen only one gentleman completely clothed in the ancient habit, +and by him it was worn only occasionally and wantonly. The common +people do not think themselves under any legal necessity of having coats; +for they say that the law against plaids was made by Lord Hardwicke, +and was in force only for his life: but the same poverty that made it +then difficult for them to change their clothing, hinders them now from +changing it again.</p> +<p>The fillibeg, or lower garment, is still very common, and the bonnet +almost universal; but their attire is such as produces, in a sufficient +degree, the effect intended by the law, of abolishing the dissimilitude +of appearance between the Highlanders and the other inhabitants of Britain; +and, if dress be supposed to have much influence, facilitates their +coalition with their fellow-subjects.</p> +<p>What we have long used we naturally like, and therefore the Highlanders +were unwilling to lay aside their plaid, which yet to an unprejudiced +spectator must appear an incommodious and cumbersome dress; for hanging +loose upon the body, it must flutter in a quick motion, or require one +of the hands to keep it close. The Romans always laid aside the +gown when they had anything to do. It was a dress so unsuitable +to war, that the same word which signified a gown signified peace. +The chief use of a plaid seems to be this, that they could commodiously +wrap themselves in it, when they were obliged to sleep without a better +cover.</p> +<p>In our passage from Scotland to Sky, we were wet for the first time +with a shower. This was the beginning of the Highland winter, +after which we were told that a succession of three dry days was not +to be expected for many months. The winter of the Hebrides consists +of little more than rain and wind. As they are surrounded by an +ocean never frozen, the blasts that come to them over the water are +too much softened to have the power of congelation. The salt loughs, +or inlets of the sea, which shoot very far into the island, never have +any ice upon them, and the pools of fresh water will never bear the +walker. The snow that sometimes falls, is soon dissolved by the +air, or the rain.</p> +<p>This is not the description of a cruel climate, yet the dark months +are here a time of great distress; because the summer can do little +more than feed itself, and winter comes with its cold and its scarcity +upon families very slenderly provided.</p> +<h2>CORIATACHAN IN SKY</h2> +<p>The third or fourth day after our arrival at Armidel, brought us +an invitation to the isle of Raasay, which lies east of Sky. It +is incredible how soon the account of any event is propagated in these +narrow countries by the love of talk, which much leisure produces, and +the relief given to the mind in the penury of insular conversation by +a new topick. The arrival of strangers at a place so rarely visited, +excites rumour, and quickens curiosity. I know not whether we +touched at any corner, where Fame had not already prepared us a reception.</p> +<p>To gain a commodious passage to Raasay, it was necessary to pass +over a large part of Sky. We were furnished therefore with horses +and a guide. In the Islands there are no roads, nor any marks +by which a stranger may find his way. The horseman has always +at his side a native of the place, who, by pursuing game, or tending +cattle, or being often employed in messages or conduct, has learned +where the ridge of the hill has breadth sufficient to allow a horse +and his rider a passage, and where the moss or bog is hard enough to +bear them. The bogs are avoided as toilsome at least, if not unsafe, +and therefore the journey is made generally from precipice to precipice; +from which if the eye ventures to look down, it sees below a gloomy +cavity, whence the rush of water is sometimes heard.</p> +<p>But there seems to be in all this more alarm than danger. The +Highlander walks carefully before, and the horse, accustomed to the +ground, follows him with little deviation. Sometimes the hill +is too steep for the horseman to keep his seat, and sometimes the moss +is too tremulous to bear the double weight of horse and man. The +rider then dismounts, and all shift as they can.</p> +<p>Journies made in this manner are rather tedious than long. +A very few miles require several hours. From Armidel we came at +night to Coriatachan, a house very pleasantly situated between two brooks, +with one of the highest hills of the island behind it. It is the +residence of Mr. Mackinnon, by whom we were treated with very liberal +hospitality, among a more numerous and elegant company than it could +have been supposed easy to collect.</p> +<p>The hill behind the house we did not climb. The weather was +rough, and the height and steepness discouraged us. We were told +that there is a cairne upon it. A cairne is a heap of stones thrown +upon the grave of one eminent for dignity of birth, or splendour of +atchievements. It is said that by digging, an urn is always found +under these cairnes: they must therefore have been thus piled by a people +whose custom was to burn the dead. To pile stones is, I believe, +a northern custom, and to burn the body was the Roman practice; nor +do I know when it was that these two acts of sepulture were united.</p> +<p>The weather was next day too violent for the continuation of our +journey; but we had no reason to complain of the interruption. +We saw in every place, what we chiefly desired to know, the manners +of the people. We had company, and, if we had chosen retirement, +we might have had books.</p> +<p>I never was in any house of the Islands, where I did not find books +in more languages than one, if I staid long enough to want them, except +one from which the family was removed. Literature is not neglected +by the higher rank of the Hebridians.</p> +<p>It need not, I suppose, be mentioned, that in countries so little +frequented as the Islands, there are no houses where travellers are +entertained for money. He that wanders about these wilds, either +procures recommendations to those whose habitations lie near his way, +or, when night and weariness come upon him, takes the chance of general +hospitality. If he finds only a cottage, he can expect little +more than shelter; for the cottagers have little more for themselves: +but if his good fortune brings him to the residence of a gentleman, +he will be glad of a storm to prolong his stay. There is, however, +one inn by the sea-side at Sconsor, in Sky, where the post-office is +kept.</p> +<p>At the tables where a stranger is received, neither plenty nor delicacy +is wanting. A tract of land so thinly inhabited, must have much +wild-fowl; and I scarcely remember to have seen a dinner without them. +The moorgame is every where to be had. That the sea abounds with +fish, needs not be told, for it supplies a great part of Europe. +The Isle of Sky has stags and roebucks, but no hares. They sell +very numerous droves of oxen yearly to England, and therefore cannot +be supposed to want beef at home. Sheep and goats are in great +numbers, and they have the common domestick fowls.</p> +<p>But as here is nothing to be bought, every family must kill its own +meat, and roast part of it somewhat sooner than Apicius would prescribe. +Every kind of flesh is undoubtedly excelled by the variety and emulation +of English markets; but that which is not best may be yet very far from +bad, and he that shall complain of his fare in the Hebrides, has improved +his delicacy more than his manhood.</p> +<p>Their fowls are not like those plumped for sale by the poulterers +of London, but they are as good as other places commonly afford, except +that the geese, by feeding in the sea, have universally a fishy rankness.</p> +<p>These geese seem to be of a middle race, between the wild and domestick +kinds. They are so tame as to own a home, and so wild as sometimes +to fly quite away.</p> +<p>Their native bread is made of oats, or barley. Of oatmeal they +spread very thin cakes, coarse and hard, to which unaccustomed palates +are not easily reconciled. The barley cakes are thicker and softer; +I began to eat them without unwillingness; the blackness of their colour +raises some dislike, but the taste is not disagreeable. In most +houses there is wheat flower, with which we were sure to be treated, +if we staid long enough to have it kneaded and baked. As neither +yeast nor leaven are used among them, their bread of every kind is unfermented. +They make only cakes, and never mould a loaf.</p> +<p>A man of the Hebrides, for of the women’s diet I can give no +account, as soon as he appears in the morning, swallows a glass of whisky; +yet they are not a drunken race, at least I never was present at much +intemperance; but no man is so abstemious as to refuse the morning dram, +which they call a skalk.</p> +<p>The word whisky signifies water, and is applied by way of eminence +to strong water, or distilled liquor. The spirit drunk in the +North is drawn from barley. I never tasted it, except once for +experiment at the inn in Inverary, when I thought it preferable to any +English malt brandy. It was strong, but not pungent, and was free +from the empyreumatick taste or smell. What was the process I +had no opportunity of inquiring, nor do I wish to improve the art of +making poison pleasant.</p> +<p>Not long after the dram, may be expected the breakfast, a meal in +which the Scots, whether of the lowlands or mountains, must be confessed +to excel us. The tea and coffee are accompanied not only with +butter, but with honey, conserves, and marmalades. If an epicure +could remove by a wish, in quest of sensual gratifications, wherever +he had supped he would breakfast in Scotland.</p> +<p>In the islands however, they do what I found it not very easy to +endure. They pollute the tea-table by plates piled with large +slices of cheshire cheese, which mingles its less grateful odours with +the fragrance of the tea.</p> +<p>Where many questions are to be asked, some will be omitted. +I forgot to inquire how they were supplied with so much exotic luxury. +Perhaps the French may bring them wine for wool, and the Dutch give +them tea and coffee at the fishing season, in exchange for fresh provision. +Their trade is unconstrained; they pay no customs, for there is no officer +to demand them; whatever therefore is made dear only by impost, is obtained +here at an easy rate.</p> +<p>A dinner in the Western Islands differs very little from a dinner +in England, except that in the place of tarts, there are always set +different preparations of milk. This part of their diet will admit +some improvement. Though they have milk, and eggs, and sugar, +few of them know how to compound them in a custard. Their gardens +afford them no great variety, but they have always some vegetables on +the table. Potatoes at least are never wanting, which, though +they have not known them long, are now one of the principal parts of +their food. They are not of the mealy, but the viscous kind.</p> +<p>Their more elaborate cookery, or made dishes, an Englishman at the +first taste is not likely to approve, but the culinary compositions +of every country are often such as become grateful to other nations +only by degrees; though I have read a French author, who, in the elation +of his heart, says, that French cookery pleases all foreigners, but +foreign cookery never satisfies a Frenchman.</p> +<p>Their suppers are, like their dinners, various and plentiful. +The table is always covered with elegant linen. Their plates for +common use are often of that kind of manufacture which is called cream +coloured, or queen’s ware. They use silver on all occasions +where it is common in England, nor did I ever find the spoon of horn, +but in one house.</p> +<p>The knives are not often either very bright, or very sharp. +They are indeed instruments of which the Highlanders have not been long +acquainted with the general use. They were not regularly laid +on the table, before the prohibition of arms, and the change of dress. +Thirty years ago the Highlander wore his knife as a companion to his +dirk or dagger, and when the company sat down to meat, the men who had +knives, cut the flesh into small pieces for the women, who with their +fingers conveyed it to their mouths.</p> +<p>There was perhaps never any change of national manners so quick, +so great, and so general, as that which has operated in the Highlands, +by the last conquest, and the subsequent laws. We came thither +too late to see what we expected, a people of peculiar appearance, and +a system of antiquated life. The clans retain little now of their +original character, their ferocity of temper is softened, their military +ardour is extinguished, their dignity of independence is depressed, +their contempt of government subdued, and the reverence for their chiefs +abated. Of what they had before the late conquest of their country, +there remain only their language and their poverty. Their language +is attacked on every side. Schools are erected, in which English +only is taught, and there were lately some who thought it reasonable +to refuse them a version of the holy scriptures, that they might have +no monument of their mother-tongue.</p> +<p>That their poverty is gradually abated, cannot be mentioned among +the unpleasing consequences of subjection. They are now acquainted +with money, and the possibility of gain will by degrees make them industrious. +Such is the effect of the late regulations, that a longer journey than +to the Highlands must be taken by him whose curiosity pants for savage +virtues and barbarous grandeur.</p> +<h2>RAASAY</h2> +<p>At the first intermission of the stormy weather we were informed, +that the boat, which was to convey us to Raasay, attended us on the +coast. We had from this time our intelligence facilitated, and +our conversation enlarged, by the company of Mr. Macqueen, minister +of a parish in Sky, whose knowledge and politeness give him a title +equally to kindness and respect, and who, from this time, never forsook +us till we were preparing to leave Sky, and the adjacent places.</p> +<p>The boat was under the direction of Mr. Malcolm Macleod, a gentleman +of Raasay. The water was calm, and the rowers were vigorous; so +that our passage was quick and pleasant. When we came near the +island, we saw the laird’s house, a neat modern fabrick, and found +Mr. Macleod, the proprietor of the Island, with many gentlemen, expecting +us on the beach. We had, as at all other places, some difficulty +in landing. The craggs were irregularly broken, and a false step +would have been very mischievous.</p> +<p>It seemed that the rocks might, with no great labour, have been hewn +almost into a regular flight of steps; and as there are no other landing +places, I considered this rugged ascent as the consequence of a form +of life inured to hardships, and therefore not studious of nice accommodations. +But I know not whether, for many ages, it was not considered as a part +of military policy, to keep the country not easily accessible. +The rocks are natural fortifications, and an enemy climbing with difficulty, +was easily destroyed by those who stood high above him.</p> +<p>Our reception exceeded our expectations. We found nothing but +civility, elegance, and plenty. After the usual refreshments, +and the usual conversation, the evening came upon us. The carpet +was then rolled off the floor; the musician was called, and the whole +company was invited to dance, nor did ever fairies trip with greater +alacrity. The general air of festivity, which predominated in +this place, so far remote from all those regions which the mind has +been used to contemplate as the mansions of pleasure, struck the imagination +with a delightful surprise, analogous to that which is felt at an unexpected +emersion from darkness into light.</p> +<p>When it was time to sup, the dance ceased, and six and thirty persons +sat down to two tables in the same room. After supper the ladies +sung Erse songs, to which I listened as an English audience to an Italian +opera, delighted with the sound of words which I did not understand.</p> +<p>I inquired the subjects of the songs, and was told of one, that it +was a love song, and of another, that it was a farewell composed by +one of the Islanders that was going, in this epidemical fury of emigration, +to seek his fortune in America. What sentiments would arise, on +such an occasion, in the heart of one who had not been taught to lament +by precedent, I should gladly have known; but the lady, by whom I sat, +thought herself not equal to the work of translating.</p> +<p>Mr. Macleod is the proprietor of the islands of Raasay, Rona, and +Fladda, and possesses an extensive district in Sky. The estate +has not, during four hundred years, gained or lost a single acre. +He acknowledges Macleod of Dunvegan as his chief, though his ancestors +have formerly disputed the pre-eminence.</p> +<p>One of the old Highland alliances has continued for two hundred years, +and is still subsisting between Macleod of Raasay and Macdonald of Sky, +in consequence of which, the survivor always inherits the arms of the +deceased; a natural memorial of military friendship. At the death +of the late Sir James Macdonald, his sword was delivered to the present +laird of Raasay.</p> +<p>The family of Raasay consists of the laird, the lady, three sons +and ten daughters. For the sons there is a tutor in the house, +and the lady is said to be very skilful and diligent in the education +of her girls. More gentleness of manners, or a more pleasing appearance +of domestick society, is not found in the most polished countries.</p> +<p>Raasay is the only inhabited island in Mr. Macleod’s possession. +Rona and Fladda afford only pasture for cattle, of which one hundred +and sixty winter in Rona, under the superintendence of a solitary herdsman.</p> +<p>The length of Raasay is, by computation, fifteen miles, and the breadth +two. These countries have never been measured, and the computation +by miles is negligent and arbitrary. We observed in travelling, +that the nominal and real distance of places had very little relation +to each other. Raasay probably contains near a hundred square +miles. It affords not much ground, notwithstanding its extent, +either for tillage, or pasture; for it is rough, rocky, and barren. +The cattle often perish by falling from the precipices. It is +like the other islands, I think, generally naked of shade, but it is +naked by neglect; for the laird has an orchard, and very large forest +trees grow about his house. Like other hilly countries it has +many rivulets. One of the brooks turns a corn-mill, and at least +one produces trouts.</p> +<p>In the streams or fresh lakes of the Islands, I have never heard +of any other fish than trouts and eels. The trouts, which I have +seen, are not large; the colour of their flesh is tinged as in England. +Of their eels I can give no account, having never tasted them; for I +believe they are not considered as wholesome food.</p> +<p>It is not very easy to fix the principles upon which mankind have +agreed to eat some animals, and reject others; and as the principle +is not evident, it is not uniform. That which is selected as delicate +in one country, is by its neighbours abhorred as loathsome. The +Neapolitans lately refused to eat potatoes in a famine. An Englishman +is not easily persuaded to dine on snails with an Italian, on frogs +with a Frenchman, or on horseflesh with a Tartar. The vulgar inhabitants +of Sky, I know not whether of the other islands, have not only eels, +but pork and bacon in abhorrence, and accordingly I never saw a hog +in the Hebrides, except one at Dunvegan.</p> +<p>Raasay has wild fowl in abundance, but neither deer, hares, nor rabbits. +Why it has them not, might be asked, but that of such questions there +is no end. Why does any nation want what it might have? +Why are not spices transplanted to America? Why does tea continue +to be brought from China? Life improves but by slow degrees, and +much in every place is yet to do. Attempts have been made to raise +roebucks in Raasay, but without effect. The young ones it is extremely +difficult to rear, and the old can very seldom be taken alive.</p> +<p>Hares and rabbits might be more easily obtained. That they +have few or none of either in Sky, they impute to the ravage of the +foxes, and have therefore set, for some years past, a price upon their +heads, which, as the number was diminished, has been gradually raised, +from three shillings and sixpence to a guinea, a sum so great in this +part of the world, that, in a short time, Sky may be as free from foxes, +as England from wolves. The fund for these rewards is a tax of +sixpence in the pound, imposed by the farmers on themselves, and said +to be paid with great willingness.</p> +<p>The beasts of prey in the Islands are foxes, otters, and weasels. +The foxes are bigger than those of England; but the otters exceed ours +in a far greater proportion. I saw one at Armidel, of a size much +beyond that which I supposed them ever to attain; and Mr. Maclean, the +heir of Col, a man of middle stature, informed me that he once shot +an otter, of which the tail reached the ground, when he held up the +head to a level with his own. I expected the otter to have a foot +particularly formed for the art of swimming; but upon examination, I +did not find it differing much from that of a spaniel. As he preys +in the sea, he does little visible mischief, and is killed only for +his fur. White otters are sometimes seen.</p> +<p>In Raasay they might have hares and rabbits, for they have no foxes. +Some depredations, such as were never made before, have caused a suspicion +that a fox has been lately landed in the Island by spite or wantonness. +This imaginary stranger has never yet been seen, and therefore, perhaps, +the mischief was done by some other animal. It is not likely that +a creature so ungentle, whose head could have been sold in Sky for a +guinea, should be kept alive only to gratify the malice of sending him +to prey upon a neighbour: and the passage from Sky is wider than a fox +would venture to swim, unless he were chased by dogs into the sea, and +perhaps than his strength would enable him to cross. How beasts +of prey came into any islands is not easy to guess. In cold countries +they take advantage of hard winters, and travel over the ice: but this +is a very scanty solution; for they are found where they have no discoverable +means of coming.</p> +<p>The corn of this island is but little. I saw the harvest of +a small field. The women reaped the Corn, and the men bound up +the sheaves. The strokes of the sickle were timed by the modulation +of the harvest song, in which all their voices were united. They +accompany in the Highlands every action, which can be done in equal +time, with an appropriated strain, which has, they say, not much meaning; +but its effects are regularity and cheerfulness. The ancient proceleusmatick +song, by which the rowers of gallies were animated, may be supposed +to have been of this kind. There is now an oar-song used by the +Hebridians.</p> +<p>The ground of Raasay seems fitter for cattle than for corn, and of +black cattle I suppose the number is very great. The Laird himself +keeps a herd of four hundred, one hundred of which are annually sold. +Of an extensive domain, which he holds in his own hands, he considers +the sale of cattle as repaying him the rent, and supports the plenty +of a very liberal table with the remaining product.</p> +<p>Raasay is supposed to have been very long inhabited. On one +side of it they show caves, into which the rude nations of the first +ages retreated from the weather. These dreary vaults might have +had other uses. There is still a cavity near the house called +the oar-cave, in which the seamen, after one of those piratical expeditions, +which in rougher times were very frequent, used, as tradition tells, +to hide their oars. This hollow was near the sea, that nothing +so necessary might be far to be fetched; and it was secret, that enemies, +if they landed, could find nothing. Yet it is not very evident +of what use it was to hide their oars from those, who, if they were +masters of the coast, could take away their boats.</p> +<p>A proof much stronger of the distance at which the first possessors +of this island lived from the present time, is afforded by the stone +heads of arrows which are very frequently picked up. The people +call them Elf-bolts, and believe that the fairies shoot them at the +cattle. They nearly resemble those which Mr. Banks has lately +brought from the savage countries in the Pacifick Ocean, and must have +been made by a nation to which the use of metals was unknown.</p> +<p>The number of this little community has never been counted by its +ruler, nor have I obtained any positive account, consistent with the +result of political computation. Not many years ago, the late +Laird led out one hundred men upon a military expedition. The +sixth part of a people is supposed capable of bearing arms: Raasay had +therefore six hundred inhabitants. But because it is not likely, +that every man able to serve in the field would follow the summons, +or that the chief would leave his lands totally defenceless, or take +away all the hands qualified for labour, let it be supposed, that half +as many might be permitted to stay at home. The whole number will +then be nine hundred, or nine to a square mile; a degree of populousness +greater than those tracts of desolation can often show. They are +content with their country, and faithful to their chiefs, and yet uninfected +with the fever of migration.</p> +<p>Near the house, at Raasay, is a chapel unroofed and ruinous, which +has long been used only as a place of burial. About the churches, +in the Islands, are small squares inclosed with stone, which belong +to particular families, as repositories for the dead. At Raasay +there is one, I think, for the proprietor, and one for some collateral +house.</p> +<p>It is told by Martin, that at the death of the Lady of the Island, +it has been here the custom to erect a cross. This we found not +to be true. The stones that stand about the chapel at a small +distance, some of which perhaps have crosses cut upon them, are believed +to have been not funeral monuments, but the ancient boundaries of the +sanctuary or consecrated ground.</p> +<p>Martin was a man not illiterate: he was an inhabitant of Sky, and +therefore was within reach of intelligence, and with no great difficulty +might have visited the places which he undertakes to describe; yet with +all his opportunities, he has often suffered himself to be deceived. +He lived in the last century, when the chiefs of the clans had lost +little of their original influence. The mountains were yet unpenetrated, +no inlet was opened to foreign novelties, and the feudal institution +operated upon life with their full force. He might therefore have +displayed a series of subordination and a form of government, which, +in more luminous and improved regions, have been long forgotten, and +have delighted his readers with many uncouth customs that are now disused, +and wild opinions that prevail no longer. But he probably had +not knowledge of the world sufficient to qualify him for judging what +would deserve or gain the attention of mankind. The mode of life +which was familiar to himself, he did not suppose unknown to others, +nor imagined that he could give pleasure by telling that of which it +was, in his little country, impossible to be ignorant.</p> +<p>What he has neglected cannot now be performed. In nations, +where there is hardly the use of letters, what is once out of sight +is lost for ever. They think but little, and of their few thoughts, +none are wasted on the past, in which they are neither interested by +fear nor hope. Their only registers are stated observances and +practical representations. For this reason an age of ignorance +is an age of ceremony. Pageants, and processions, and commemorations, +gradually shrink away, as better methods come into use of recording +events, and preserving rights.</p> +<p>It is not only in Raasay that the chapel is unroofed and useless; +through the few islands which we visited, we neither saw nor heard of +any house of prayer, except in Sky, that was not in ruins. The +malignant influence of Calvinism has blasted ceremony and decency together; +and if the remembrance of papal superstition is obliterated, the monuments +of papal piety are likewise effaced.</p> +<p>It has been, for many years, popular to talk of the lazy devotion +of the Romish clergy; over the sleepy laziness of men that erected churches, +we may indulge our superiority with a new triumph, by comparing it with +the fervid activity of those who suffer them to fall.</p> +<p>Of the destruction of churches, the decay of religion must in time +be the consequence; for while the publick acts of the ministry are now +performed in houses, a very small number can be present; and as the +greater part of the Islanders make no use of books, all must necessarily +live in total ignorance who want the opportunity of vocal instruction.</p> +<p>From these remains of ancient sanctity, which are every where to +be found, it has been conjectured, that, for the last two centuries, +the inhabitants of the Islands have decreased in number. This +argument, which supposes that the churches have been suffered to fall, +only because they were no longer necessary, would have some force, if +the houses of worship still remaining were sufficient for the people. +But since they have now no churches at all, these venerable fragments +do not prove the people of former times to have been more numerous, +but to have been more devout. If the inhabitants were doubled +with their present principles, it appears not that any provision for +publick worship would be made. Where the religion of a country +enforces consecrated buildings, the number of those buildings may be +supposed to afford some indication, however uncertain, of the populousness +of the place; but where by a change of manners a nation is contented +to live without them, their decay implies no diminution of inhabitants.</p> +<p>Some of these dilapidations are said to be found in islands now uninhabited; +but I doubt whether we can thence infer that they were ever peopled. +The religion of the middle age, is well known to have placed too much +hope in lonely austerities. Voluntary solitude was the great act +of propitiation, by which crimes were effaced, and conscience was appeased; +it is therefore not unlikely, that oratories were often built in places +where retirement was sure to have no disturbance.</p> +<p>Raasay has little that can detain a traveller, except the Laird and +his family; but their power wants no auxiliaries. Such a seat +of hospitality, amidst the winds and waters, fills the imagination with +a delightful contrariety of images. Without is the rough ocean +and the rocky land, the beating billows and the howling storm: within +is plenty and elegance, beauty and gaiety, the song and the dance. +In Raasay, if I could have found an Ulysses, I had fancied a Phoeacia.</p> +<h2>DUNVEGAN</h2> +<p>At Raasay, by good fortune, Macleod, so the chief of the clan is +called, was paying a visit, and by him we were invited to his seat at +Dunvegan. Raasay has a stout boat, built in Norway, in which, +with six oars, he conveyed us back to Sky. We landed at Port Re, +so called, because James the Fifth of Scotland, who had curiosity to +visit the Islands, came into it. The port is made by an inlet +of the sea, deep and narrow, where a ship lay waiting to dispeople Sky, +by carrying the natives away to America.</p> +<p>In coasting Sky, we passed by the cavern in which it was the custom, +as Martin relates, to catch birds in the night, by making a fire at +the entrance. This practice is disused; for the birds, as is known +often to happen, have changed their haunts.</p> +<p>Here we dined at a publick house, I believe the only inn of the island, +and having mounted our horses, travelled in the manner already described, +till we came to Kingsborough, a place distinguished by that name, because +the King lodged here when he landed at Port Re. We were entertained +with the usual hospitality by Mr. Macdonald and his lady, Flora Macdonald, +a name that will be mentioned in history, and if courage and fidelity +be virtues, mentioned with honour. She is a woman of middle stature, +soft features, gentle manners, and elegant presence.</p> +<p>In the morning we sent our horses round a promontory to meet us, +and spared ourselves part of the day’s fatigue, by crossing an +arm of the sea. We had at last some difficulty in coming to Dunvegan; +for our way led over an extensive moor, where every step was to be taken +with caution, and we were often obliged to alight, because the ground +could not be trusted. In travelling this watery flat, I perceived +that it had a visible declivity, and might without much expence or difficulty +be drained. But difficulty and expence are relative terms, which +have different meanings in different places.</p> +<p>To Dunvegan we came, very willing to be at rest, and found our fatigue +amply recompensed by our reception. Lady Macleod, who had lived +many years in England, was newly come hither with her son and four daughters, +who knew all the arts of southern elegance, and all the modes of English +economy. Here therefore we settled, and did not spoil the present +hour with thoughts of departure.</p> +<p>Dunvegan is a rocky prominence, that juts out into a bay, on the +west side of Sky. The house, which is the principal seat of Macleod, +is partly old and partly modern; it is built upon the rock, and looks +upon the water. It forms two sides of a small square: on the third +side is the skeleton of a castle of unknown antiquity, supposed to have +been a Norwegian fortress, when the Danes were masters of the Islands. +It is so nearly entire, that it might have easily been made habitable, +were there not an ominous tradition in the family, that the owner shall +not long outlive the reparation. The grandfather of the present +Laird, in defiance of prediction, began the work, but desisted in a +little time, and applied his money to worse uses.</p> +<p>As the inhabitants of the Hebrides lived, for many ages, in continual +expectation of hostilities, the chief of every clan resided in a fortress. +This house was accessible only from the water, till the last possessor +opened an entrance by stairs upon the land.</p> +<p>They had formerly reason to be afraid, not only of declared wars +and authorized invaders, or of roving pirates, which, in the northern +seas, must have been very common; but of inroads and insults from rival +clans, who, in the plenitude of feudal independence, asked no leave +of their Sovereign to make war on one another. Sky has been ravaged +by a feud between the two mighty powers of Macdonald and Macleod. +Macdonald having married a Macleod upon some discontent dismissed her, +perhaps because she had brought him no children. Before the reign +of James the Fifth, a Highland Laird made a trial of his wife for a +certain time, and if she did not please him, he was then at liberty +to send her away. This however must always have offended, and +Macleod resenting the injury, whatever were its circumstances, declared, +that the wedding had been solemnized without a bonfire, but that the +separation should be better illuminated; and raising a little army, +set fire to the territories of Macdonald, who returned the visit, and +prevailed.</p> +<p>Another story may show the disorderly state of insular neighbourhood. +The inhabitants of the Isle of Egg, meeting a boat manned by Macleods, +tied the crew hand and foot, and set them a-drift. Macleod landed +upon Egg, and demanded the offenders; but the inhabitants refusing to +surrender them, retreated to a cavern, into which they thought their +enemies unlikely to follow them. Macleod choked them with smoke, +and left them lying dead by families as they stood.</p> +<p>Here the violence of the weather confined us for some time, not at +all to our discontent or inconvenience. We would indeed very willingly +have visited the Islands, which might be seen from the house scattered +in the sea, and I was particularly desirous to have viewed Isay; but +the storms did not permit us to launch a boat, and we were condemned +to listen in idleness to the wind, except when we were better engaged +by listening to the ladies.</p> +<p>We had here more wind than waves, and suffered the severity of a +tempest, without enjoying its magnificence. The sea being broken +by the multitude of islands, does not roar with so much noise, nor beat +the shore with such foamy violence, as I have remarked on the coast +of Sussex. Though, while I was in the Hebrides, the wind was extremely +turbulent, I never saw very high billows.</p> +<p>The country about Dunvegan is rough and barren. There are no +trees, except in the orchard, which is a low sheltered spot surrounded +with a wall.</p> +<p>When this house was intended to sustain a siege, a well was made +in the court, by boring the rock downwards, till water was found, which +though so near to the sea, I have not heard mentioned as brackish, though +it has some hardness, or other qualities, which make it less fit for +use; and the family is now better supplied from a stream, which runs +by the rock, from two pleasing waterfalls.</p> +<p>Here we saw some traces of former manners, and heard some standing +traditions. In the house is kept an ox’s horn, hollowed +so as to hold perhaps two quarts, which the heir of Macleod was expected +to swallow at one draught, as a test of his manhood, before he was permitted +to bear arms, or could claim a seat among the men. It is held +that the return of the Laird to Dunvegan, after any considerable absence, +produces a plentiful capture of herrings; and that, if any woman crosses +the water to the opposite Island, the herrings will desert the coast. +Boetius tells the same of some other place. This tradition is +not uniform. Some hold that no woman may pass, and others that +none may pass but a Macleod.</p> +<p>Among other guests, which the hospitality of Dunvegan brought to +the table, a visit was paid by the Laird and Lady of a small island +south of Sky, of which the proper name is Muack, which signifies swine. +It is commonly called Muck, which the proprietor not liking, has endeavoured, +without effect, to change to Monk. It is usual to call gentlemen +in Scotland by the name of their possessions, as Raasay, Bernera, Loch +Buy, a practice necessary in countries inhabited by clans, where all +that live in the same territory have one name, and must be therefore +discriminated by some addition. This gentleman, whose name, I +think, is Maclean, should be regularly called Muck; but the appellation, +which he thinks too coarse for his Island, he would like still less +for himself, and he is therefore addressed by the title of, Isle of +Muck.</p> +<p>This little Island, however it be named, is of considerable value. +It is two English miles long, and three quarters of a mile broad, and +consequently contains only nine hundred and sixty English acres. +It is chiefly arable. Half of this little dominion the Laird retains +in his own hand, and on the other half, live one hundred and sixty persons, +who pay their rent by exported corn. What rent they pay, we were +not told, and could not decently inquire. The proportion of the +people to the land is such, as the most fertile countries do not commonly +maintain.</p> +<p>The Laird having all his people under his immediate view, seems to +be very attentive to their happiness. The devastation of the small-pox, +when it visits places where it comes seldom, is well known. He +has disarmed it of its terrour at Muack, by inoculating eighty of his +people. The expence was two shillings and sixpence a head. +Many trades they cannot have among them, but upon occasion, he fetches +a smith from the Isle of Egg, and has a tailor from the main land, six +times a year. This island well deserved to be seen, but the Laird’s +absence left us no opportunity.</p> +<p>Every inhabited island has its appendant and subordinate islets. +Muck, however small, has yet others smaller about it, one of which has +only ground sufficient to afford pasture for three wethers.</p> +<p>At Dunvegan I had tasted lotus, and was in danger of forgetting that +I was ever to depart, till Mr. Boswell sagely reproached me with my +sluggishness and softness. I had no very forcible defence to make; +and we agreed to pursue our journey. Macleod accompanied us to +Ulinish, where we were entertained by the sheriff of the Island.</p> +<h2>ULINISH</h2> +<p>Mr. Macqueen travelled with us, and directed our attention to all +that was worthy of observation. With him we went to see an ancient +building, called a dun or borough. It was a circular inclosure, +about forty-two feet in diameter, walled round with loose stones, perhaps +to the height of nine feet. The walls were very thick, diminishing +a little toward the top, and though in these countries, stone is not +brought far, must have been raised with much labour. Within the +great circle were several smaller rounds of wall, which formed distinct +apartments. Its date, and its use are unknown. Some suppose +it the original seat of the chiefs of the Macleods. Mr. Macqueen +thought it a Danish fort.</p> +<p>The entrance is covered with flat stones, and is narrow, because +it was necessary that the stones which lie over it, should reach from +one wall to the other; yet, strait as the passage is, they seem heavier +than could have been placed where they now lie, by the naked strength +of as many men as might stand about them. They were probably raised +by putting long pieces of wood under them, to which the action of a +long line of lifters might be applied. Savages, in all countries, +have patience proportionate to their unskilfulness, and are content +to attain their end by very tedious methods.</p> +<p>If it was ever roofed, it might once have been a dwelling, but as +there is no provision for water, it could not have been a fortress. +In Sky, as in every other place, there is an ambition of exalting whatever +has survived memory, to some important use, and referring it to very +remote ages. I am inclined to suspect, that in lawless times, +when the inhabitants of every mountain stole the cattle of their neighbour, +these inclosures were used to secure the herds and flocks in the night. +When they were driven within the wall, they might be easily watched, +and defended as long as could be needful; for the robbers durst not +wait till the injured clan should find them in the morning.</p> +<p>The interior inclosures, if the whole building were once a house, +were the chambers of the chief inhabitants. If it was a place +of security for cattle, they were probably the shelters of the keepers.</p> +<p>From the Dun we were conducted to another place of security, a cave +carried a great way under ground, which had been discovered by digging +after a fox. These caves, of which many have been found, and many +probably remain concealed, are formed, I believe, commonly by taking +advantage of a hollow, where banks or rocks rise on either side. +If no such place can be found, the ground must be cut away. The +walls are made by piling stones against the earth, on either side. +It is then roofed by larger stones laid across the cavern, which therefore +cannot be wide. Over the roof, turfs were placed, and grass was +suffered to grow; and the mouth was concealed by bushes, or some other +cover.</p> +<p>These caves were represented to us as the cabins of the first rude +inhabitants, of which, however, I am by no means persuaded. This +was so low, that no man could stand upright in it. By their construction +they are all so narrow, that two can never pass along them together, +and being subterraneous, they must be always damp. They are not +the work of an age much ruder than the present; for they are formed +with as much art as the construction of a common hut requires. +I imagine them to have been places only of occasional use, in which +the Islander, upon a sudden alarm, hid his utensils, or his cloaths, +and perhaps sometimes his wife and children.</p> +<p>This cave we entered, but could not proceed the whole length, and +went away without knowing how far it was carried. For this omission +we shall be blamed, as we perhaps have blamed other travellers; but +the day was rainy, and the ground was damp. We had with us neither +spades nor pickaxes, and if love of ease surmounted our desire of knowledge, +the offence has not the invidiousness of singularity.</p> +<p>Edifices, either standing or ruined, are the chief records of an +illiterate nation. In some part of this journey, at no great distance +from our way, stood a shattered fortress, of which the learned minister, +to whose communication we are much indebted, gave us an account.</p> +<p>Those, said he, are the walls of a place of refuge, built in the +time of James the Sixth, by Hugh Macdonald, who was next heir to the +dignity and fortune of his chief. Hugh, being so near his wish, +was impatient of delay; and had art and influence sufficient to engage +several gentlemen in a plot against the Laird’s life. Something +must be stipulated on both sides; for they would not dip their hands +in blood merely for Hugh’s advancement. The compact was +formerly written, signed by the conspirators, and placed in the hands +of one Macleod.</p> +<p>It happened that Macleod had sold some cattle to a drover, who, not +having ready money, gave him a bond for payment. The debt was +discharged, and the bond re-demanded; which Macleod, who could not read, +intending to put into his hands, gave him the conspiracy. The +drover, when he had read the paper, delivered it privately to Macdonald; +who, being thus informed of his danger, called his friends together, +and provided for his safety. He made a public feast, and inviting +Hugh Macdonald and his confederates, placed each of them at the table +between two men of known fidelity. The compact of conspiracy was +then shewn, and every man confronted with his own name. Macdonald +acted with great moderation. He upbraided Hugh, both with disloyalty +and ingratitude; but told the rest, that he considered them as men deluded +and misinformed. Hugh was sworn to fidelity, and dismissed with +his companions; but he was not generous enough to be reclaimed by lenity; +and finding no longer any countenance among the gentlemen, endeavoured +to execute the same design by meaner hands. In this practice he +was detected, taken to Macdonald’s castle, and imprisoned in the +dungeon. When he was hungry, they let down a plentiful meal of +salted meat; and when, after his repast, he called for drink, conveyed +to him a covered cup, which, when he lifted the lid, he found empty. +From that time they visited him no more, but left him to perish in solitude +and darkness.</p> +<p>We were then told of a cavern by the sea-side, remarkable for the +powerful reverberation of sounds. After dinner we took a boat, +to explore this curious cavity. The boatmen, who seemed to be +of a rank above that of common drudges, inquired who the strangers were, +and being told we came one from Scotland, and the other from England, +asked if the Englishman could recount a long genealogy. What answer +was given them, the conversation being in Erse, I was not much inclined +to examine.</p> +<p>They expected no good event of the voyage; for one of them declared +that he heard the cry of an English ghost. This omen I was not +told till after our return, and therefore cannot claim the dignity of +despising it.</p> +<p>The sea was smooth. We never left the shore, and came without +any disaster to the cavern, which we found rugged and misshapen, about +one hundred and eighty feet long, thirty wide in the broadest part, +and in the loftiest, as we guessed, about thirty high. It was +now dry, but at high water the sea rises in it near six feet. +Here I saw what I had never seen before, limpets and mussels in their +natural state. But, as a new testimony to the veracity of common +fame, here was no echo to be heard.</p> +<p>We then walked through a natural arch in the rock, which might have +pleased us by its novelty, had the stones, which incumbered our feet, +given us leisure to consider it. We were shown the gummy seed +of the kelp, that fastens itself to a stone, from which it grows into +a strong stalk.</p> +<p>In our return, we found a little boy upon the point of rock, catching +with his angle, a supper for the family. We rowed up to him, and +borrowed his rod, with which Mr. Boswell caught a cuddy.</p> +<p>The cuddy is a fish of which I know not the philosophical name. +It is not much bigger than a gudgeon, but is of great use in these Islands, +as it affords the lower people both food, and oil for their lamps. +Cuddies are so abundant, at sometimes of the year, that they are caught +like whitebait in the Thames, only by dipping a basket and drawing it +back.</p> +<p>If it were always practicable to fish, these Islands could never +be in much danger from famine; but unhappily in the winter, when other +provision fails, the seas are commonly too rough for nets, or boats.</p> +<h2>TALISKER IN SKY</h2> +<p>From Ulinish, our next stage was to Talisker, the house of colonel +Macleod, an officer in the Dutch service, who, in this time of universal +peace, has for several years been permitted to be absent from his regiment. +Having been bred to physick, he is consequently a scholar, and his lady, +by accompanying him in his different places of residence, is become +skilful in several languages. Talisker is the place beyond all +that I have seen, from which the gay and the jovial seem utterly excluded; +and where the hermit might expect to grow old in meditation, without +possibility of disturbance or interruption. It is situated very +near the sea, but upon a coast where no vessel lands but when it is +driven by a tempest on the rocks. Towards the land are lofty hills +streaming with waterfalls. The garden is sheltered by firs or +pines, which grow there so prosperously, that some, which the present +inhabitant planted, are very high and thick.</p> +<p>At this place we very happily met Mr. Donald Maclean, a young gentleman, +the eldest son of the Laird of Col, heir to a very great extent of land, +and so desirous of improving his inheritance, that he spent a considerable +time among the farmers of Hertfordshire, and Hampshire, to learn their +practice. He worked with his own hands at the principal operations +of agriculture, that he might not deceive himself by a false opinion +of skill, which, if he should find it deficient at home, he had no means +of completing. If the world has agreed to praise the travels and +manual labours of the Czar of Muscovy, let Col have his share of the +like applause, in the proportion of his dominions to the empire of Russia.</p> +<p>This young gentleman was sporting in the mountains of Sky, and when +he was weary with following his game, repaired for lodging to Talisker. +At night he missed one of his dogs, and when he went to seek him in +the morning, found two eagles feeding on his carcass.</p> +<p>Col, for he must be named by his possessions, hearing that our intention +was to visit Jona, offered to conduct us to his chief, Sir Allan Maclean, +who lived in the isle of Inch Kenneth, and would readily find us a convenient +passage. From this time was formed an acquaintance, which being +begun by kindness, was accidentally continued by constraint; we derived +much pleasure from it, and I hope have given him no reason to repent +it.</p> +<p>The weather was now almost one continued storm, and we were to snatch +some happy intermission to be conveyed to Mull, the third Island of +the Hebrides, lying about a degree south of Sky, whence we might easily +find our way to Inch Kenneth, where Sir Allan Maclean resided, and afterward +to Jona.</p> +<p>For this purpose, the most commodious station that we could take +was Armidel, which Sir Alexander Macdonald had now left to a gentleman, +who lived there as his factor or steward.</p> +<p>In our way to Armidel was Coriatachan, where we had already been, +and to which therefore we were very willing to return. We staid +however so long at Talisker, that a great part of our journey was performed +in the gloom of the evening. In travelling even thus almost without +light thro’ naked solitude, when there is a guide whose conduct +may be trusted, a mind not naturally too much disposed to fear, may +preserve some degree of cheerfulness; but what must be the solicitude +of him who should be wandering, among the craggs and hollows, benighted, +ignorant, and alone?</p> +<p>The fictions of the Gothick romances were not so remote from credibility +as they are now thought. In the full prevalence of the feudal +institution, when violence desolated the world, and every baron lived +in a fortress, forests and castles were regularly succeeded by each +other, and the adventurer might very suddenly pass from the gloom of +woods, or the ruggedness of moors, to seats of plenty, gaiety, and magnificence. +Whatever is imaged in the wildest tale, if giants, dragons, and enchantment +be excepted, would be felt by him, who, wandering in the mountains without +a guide, or upon the sea without a pilot, should be carried amidst his +terror and uncertainty, to the hospitality and elegance of Raasay or +Dunvegan.</p> +<p>To Coriatachan at last we came, and found ourselves welcomed as before. +Here we staid two days, and made such inquiries as curiosity suggested. +The house was filled with company, among whom Mr. Macpherson and his +sister distinguished themselves by their politeness and accomplishments. +By him we were invited to Ostig, a house not far from Armidel, where +we might easily hear of a boat, when the weather would suffer us to +leave the Island.</p> +<h2>OSTIG IN SKY</h2> +<p>At Ostig, of which Mr. Macpherson is minister, we were entertained +for some days, then removed to Armidel, where we finished our observations +on the island of Sky.</p> +<p>As this Island lies in the fifty-seventh degree, the air cannot be +supposed to have much warmth. The long continuance of the sun +above the horizon, does indeed sometimes produce great heat in northern +latitudes; but this can only happen in sheltered places, where the atmosphere +is to a certain degree stagnant, and the same mass of air continues +to receive for many hours the rays of the sun, and the vapours of the +earth. Sky lies open on the west and north to a vast extent of +ocean, and is cooled in the summer by perpetual ventilation, but by +the same blasts is kept warm in winter. Their weather is not pleasing. +Half the year is deluged with rain. From the autumnal to the vernal +equinox, a dry day is hardly known, except when the showers are suspended +by a tempest. Under such skies can be expected no great exuberance +of vegetation. Their winter overtakes their summer, and their +harvest lies upon the ground drenched with rain. The autumn struggles +hard to produce some of our early fruits. I gathered gooseberries +in September; but they were small, and the husk was thick.</p> +<p>Their winter is seldom such as puts a full stop to the growth of +plants, or reduces the cattle to live wholly on the surplusage of the +summer. In the year Seventy-one they had a severe season, remembered +by the name of the Black Spring, from which the island has not yet recovered. +The snow lay long upon the ground, a calamity hardly known before. +Part of their cattle died for want, part were unseasonably sold to buy +sustenance for the owners; and, what I have not read or heard of before, +the kine that survived were so emaciated and dispirited, that they did +not require the male at the usual time. Many of the roebucks perished.</p> +<p>The soil, as in other countries, has its diversities. In some +parts there is only a thin layer of earth spread upon a rock, which +bears nothing but short brown heath, and perhaps is not generally capable +of any better product. There are many bogs or mosses of greater +or less extent, where the soil cannot be supposed to want depth, though +it is too wet for the plow. But we did not observe in these any +aquatick plants. The vallies and the mountains are alike darkened +with heath. Some grass, however, grows here and there, and some +happier spots of earth are capable of tillage.</p> +<p>Their agriculture is laborious, and perhaps rather feeble than unskilful. +Their chief manure is seaweed, which, when they lay it to rot upon the +field, gives them a better crop than those of the Highlands. They +heap sea shells upon the dunghill, which in time moulder into a fertilising +substance. When they find a vein of earth where they cannot use +it, they dig it up, and add it to the mould of a more commodious place.</p> +<p>Their corn grounds often lie in such intricacies among the craggs, +that there is no room for the action of a team and plow. The soil +is then turned up by manual labour, with an instrument called a crooked +spade, of a form and weight which to me appeared very incommodious, +and would perhaps be soon improved in a country where workmen could +be easily found and easily paid. It has a narrow blade of iron +fixed to a long and heavy piece of wood, which must have, about a foot +and a half above the iron, a knee or flexure with the angle downwards. +When the farmer encounters a stone which is the great impediment of +his operations, he drives the blade under it, and bringing the knee +or angle to the ground, has in the long handle a very forcible lever.</p> +<p>According to the different mode of tillage, farms are distinguished +into long land and short land. Long land is that which affords +room for a plow, and short land is turned up by the spade.</p> +<p>The grain which they commit to the furrows thus tediously formed, +is either oats or barley. They do not sow barley without very +copious manure, and then they expect from it ten for one, an increase +equal to that of better countries; but the culture is so operose that +they content themselves commonly with oats; and who can relate without +compassion, that after all their diligence they are to expect only a +triple increase? It is in vain to hope for plenty, when a third +part of the harvest must be reserved for seed.</p> +<p>When their grain is arrived at the state which they must consider +as ripeness, they do not cut, but pull the barley: to the oats they +apply the sickle. Wheel carriages they have none, but make a frame +of timber, which is drawn by one horse with the two points behind pressing +on the ground. On this they sometimes drag home their sheaves, +but often convey them home in a kind of open panier, or frame of sticks +upon the horse’s back.</p> +<p>Of that which is obtained with so much difficulty, nothing surely +ought to be wasted; yet their method of clearing their oats from the +husk is by parching them in the straw. Thus with the genuine improvidence +of savages, they destroy that fodder for want of which their cattle +may perish. From this practice they have two petty conveniences. +They dry the grain so that it is easily reduced to meal, and they escape +the theft of the thresher. The taste contracted from the fire +by the oats, as by every other scorched substance, use must long ago +have made grateful. The oats that are not parched must be dried +in a kiln.</p> +<p>The barns of Sky I never saw. That which Macleod of Raasay +had erected near his house was so contrived, because the harvest is +seldom brought home dry, as by perpetual perflation to prevent the mow +from heating.</p> +<p>Of their gardens I can judge only from their tables. I did +not observe that the common greens were wanting, and suppose, that by +choosing an advantageous exposition, they can raise all the more hardy +esculent plants. Of vegetable fragrance or beauty they are not +yet studious. Few vows are made to Flora in the Hebrides.</p> +<p>They gather a little hay, but the grass is mown late; and is so often +almost dry and again very wet, before it is housed, that it becomes +a collection of withered stalks without taste or fragrance; it must +be eaten by cattle that have nothing else, but by most English farmers +would be thrown away.</p> +<p>In the Islands I have not heard that any subterraneous treasures +have been discovered, though where there are mountains, there are commonly +minerals. One of the rocks in Col has a black vein, imagined to +consist of the ore of lead; but it was never yet opened or essayed. +In Sky a black mass was accidentally picked up, and brought into the +house of the owner of the land, who found himself strongly inclined +to think it a coal, but unhappily it did not burn in the chimney. +Common ores would be here of no great value; for what requires to be +separated by fire, must, if it were found, be carried away in its mineral +state, here being no fewel for the smelting-house or forge. Perhaps +by diligent search in this world of stone, some valuable species of +marble might be discovered. But neither philosophical curiosity, +nor commercial industry, have yet fixed their abode here, where the +importunity of immediate want supplied but for the day, and craving +on the morrow, has left little room for excursive knowledge or the pleasing +fancies of distant profit.</p> +<p>They have lately found a manufacture considerably lucrative. +Their rocks abound with kelp, a sea-plant, of which the ashes are melted +into glass. They burn kelp in great quantities, and then send +it away in ships, which come regularly to purchase them. This +new source of riches has raised the rents of many maritime farms; but +the tenants pay, like all other tenants, the additional rent with great +unwillingness; because they consider the profits of the kelp as the +mere product of personal labour, to which the landlord contributes nothing. +However, as any man may be said to give, what he gives the power of +gaining, he has certainly as much right to profit from the price of +kelp as of any thing else found or raised upon his ground.</p> +<p>This new trade has excited a long and eager litigation between Macdonald +and Macleod, for a ledge of rocks, which, till the value of kelp was +known, neither of them desired the reputation of possessing.</p> +<p>The cattle of Sky are not so small as is commonly believed. +Since they have sent their beeves in great numbers to southern marts, +they have probably taken more care of their breed. At stated times +the annual growth of cattle is driven to a fair, by a general drover, +and with the money, which he returns to the farmer, the rents are paid.</p> +<p>The price regularly expected, is from two to three pounds a head: +there was once one sold for five pounds. They go from the Islands +very lean, and are not offered to the butcher, till they have been long +fatted in English pastures.</p> +<p>Of their black cattle, some are without horns, called by the Scots +humble cows, as we call a bee an humble bee, that wants a sting. +Whether this difference be specifick, or accidental, though we inquired +with great diligence, we could not be informed. We are not very +sure that the bull is ever without horns, though we have been told, +that such bulls there are. What is produced by putting a horned +and unhorned male and female together, no man has ever tried, that thought +the result worthy of observation.</p> +<p>Their horses are, like their cows, of a moderate size. I had +no difficulty to mount myself commodiously by the favour of the gentlemen. +I heard of very little cows in Barra, and very little horses in Rum, +where perhaps no care is taken to prevent that diminution of size, which +must always happen, where the greater and the less copulate promiscuously, +and the young animal is restrained from growth by penury of sustenance.</p> +<p>The goat is the general inhabitant of the earth, complying with every +difference of climate, and of soil. The goats of the Hebrides +are like others: nor did I hear any thing of their sheep, to be particularly +remarked.</p> +<p>In the penury of these malignant regions, nothing is left that can +be converted to food. The goats and the sheep are milked like +the cows. A single meal of a goat is a quart, and of a sheep a +pint. Such at least was the account, which I could extract from +those of whom I am not sure that they ever had inquired.</p> +<p>The milk of goats is much thinner than that of cows, and that of +sheep is much thicker. Sheeps milk is never eaten before it is +boiled: as it is thick, it must be very liberal of curd, and the people +of St. Kilda form it into small cheeses.</p> +<p>The stags of the mountains are less than those of our parks, or forests, +perhaps not bigger than our fallow deer. Their flesh has no rankness, +nor is inferiour in flavour to our common venison. The roebuck +I neither saw nor tasted. These are not countries for a regular +chase. The deer are not driven with horns and hounds. A +sportsman, with his gun in his hand, watches the animal, and when he +has wounded him, traces him by the blood.</p> +<p>They have a race of brinded greyhounds, larger and stronger than +those with which we course hares, and those are the only dogs used by +them for the chase.</p> +<p>Man is by the use of fire-arms made so much an overmatch for other +animals, that in all countries, where they are in use, the wild part +of the creation sensibly diminishes. There will probably not be +long, either stags or roebucks in the Islands. All the beasts +of chase would have been lost long ago in countries well inhabited, +had they not been preserved by laws for the pleasure of the rich.</p> +<p>There are in Sky neither rats nor mice, but the weasel is so frequent, +that he is heard in houses rattling behind chests or beds, as rats in +England. They probably owe to his predominance that they have +no other vermin; for since the great rat took possession of this part +of the world, scarce a ship can touch at any port, but some of his race +are left behind. They have within these few years began to infest +the isle of Col, where being left by some trading vessel, they have +increased for want of weasels to oppose them.</p> +<p>The inhabitants of Sky, and of the other Islands, which I have seen, +are commonly of the middle stature, with fewer among them very tall +or very short, than are seen in England, or perhaps, as their numbers +are small, the chances of any deviation from the common measure are +necessarily few. The tallest men that I saw are among those of +higher rank. In regions of barrenness and scarcity, the human +race is hindered in its growth by the same causes as other animals.</p> +<p>The ladies have as much beauty here as in other places, but bloom +and softness are not to be expected among the lower classes, whose faces +are exposed to the rudeness of the climate, and whose features are sometimes +contracted by want, and sometimes hardened by the blasts. Supreme +beauty is seldom found in cottages or work-shops, even where no real +hardships are suffered. To expand the human face to its full perfection, +it seems necessary that the mind should co-operate by placidness of +content, or consciousness of superiority.</p> +<p>Their strength is proportionate to their size, but they are accustomed +to run upon rough ground, and therefore can with great agility skip +over the bog, or clamber the mountain. For a campaign in the wastes +of America, soldiers better qualified could not have been found. +Having little work to do, they are not willing, nor perhaps able to +endure a long continuance of manual labour, and are therefore considered +as habitually idle.</p> +<p>Having never been supplied with those accommodations, which life +extensively diversified with trades affords, they supply their wants +by very insufficient shifts, and endure many inconveniences, which a +little attention would easily relieve. I have seen a horse carrying +home the harvest on a crate. Under his tail was a stick for a +crupper, held at the two ends by twists of straw. Hemp will grow +in their islands, and therefore ropes may be had. If they wanted +hemp, they might make better cordage of rushes, or perhaps of nettles, +than of straw.</p> +<p>Their method of life neither secures them perpetual health, nor exposes +them to any particular diseases. There are physicians in the Islands, +who, I believe, all practise chirurgery, and all compound their own +medicines.</p> +<p>It is generally supposed, that life is longer in places where there +are few opportunities of luxury; but I found no instance here of extraordinary +longevity. A cottager grows old over his oaten cakes, like a citizen +at a turtle feast. He is indeed seldom incommoded by corpulence. +Poverty preserves him from sinking under the burden of himself, but +he escapes no other injury of time. Instances of long life are +often related, which those who hear them are more willing to credit +than examine. To be told that any man has attained a hundred years, +gives hope and comfort to him who stands trembling on the brink of his +own climacterick.</p> +<p>Length of life is distributed impartially to very different modes +of life in very different climates; and the mountains have no greater +examples of age and health than the low lands, where I was introduced +to two ladies of high quality; one of whom, in her ninety-fourth year, +presided at her table with the full exercise of all her powers; and +the other has attained her eighty-fourth, without any diminution of +her vivacity, and with little reason to accuse time of depredations +on her beauty.</p> +<p>In the Islands, as in most other places, the inhabitants are of different +rank, and one does not encroach here upon another. Where there +is no commerce nor manufacture, he that is born poor can scarcely become +rich; and if none are able to buy estates, he that is born to land cannot +annihilate his family by selling it. This was once the state of +these countries. Perhaps there is no example, till within a century +and half, of any family whose estate was alienated otherwise than by +violence or forfeiture. Since money has been brought amongst them, +they have found, like others, the art of spending more than they receive; +and I saw with grief the chief of a very ancient clan, whose Island +was condemned by law to be sold for the satisfaction of his creditors.</p> +<p>The name of highest dignity is Laird, of which there are in the extensive +Isle of Sky only three, Macdonald, Macleod, and Mackinnon. The +Laird is the original owner of the land, whose natural power must be +very great, where no man lives but by agriculture; and where the produce +of the land is not conveyed through the labyrinths of traffick, but +passes directly from the hand that gathers it to the mouth that eats +it. The Laird has all those in his power that live upon his farms. +Kings can, for the most part, only exalt or degrade. The Laird +at pleasure can feed or starve, can give bread, or withold it. +This inherent power was yet strengthened by the kindness of consanguinity, +and the reverence of patriarchal authority. The Laird was the +father of the Clan, and his tenants commonly bore his name. And +to these principles of original command was added, for many ages, an +exclusive right of legal jurisdiction.</p> +<p>This multifarious, and extensive obligation operated with force scarcely +credible. Every duty, moral or political, was absorbed in affection +and adherence to the Chief. Not many years have passed since the +clans knew no law but the Laird’s will. He told them to +whom they should be friends or enemies, what King they should obey, +and what religion they should profess.</p> +<p>When the Scots first rose in arms against the succession of the house +of Hanover, Lovat, the Chief of the Frasers, was in exile for a rape. +The Frasers were very numerous, and very zealous against the government. +A pardon was sent to Lovat. He came to the English camp, and the +clan immediately deserted to him.</p> +<p>Next in dignity to the Laird is the Tacksman; a large taker or lease-holder +of land, of which he keeps part, as a domain, in his own hand, and lets +part to under tenants. The Tacksman is necessarily a man capable +of securing to the Laird the whole rent, and is commonly a collateral +relation. These tacks, or subordinate possessions, were long considered +as hereditary, and the occupant was distinguished by the name of the +place at which he resided. He held a middle station, by which +the highest and the lowest orders were connected. He paid rent +and reverence to the Laird, and received them from the tenants. +This tenure still subsists, with its original operation, but not with +the primitive stability. Since the islanders, no longer content +to live, have learned the desire of growing rich, an ancient dependent +is in danger of giving way to a higher bidder, at the expense of domestick +dignity and hereditary power. The stranger, whose money buys him +preference, considers himself as paying for all that he has, and is +indifferent about the Laird’s honour or safety. The commodiousness +of money is indeed great; but there are some advantages which money +cannot buy, and which therefore no wise man will by the love of money +be tempted to forego.</p> +<p>I have found in the hither parts of Scotland, men not defective in +judgment or general experience, who consider the Tacksman as a useless +burden of the ground, as a drone who lives upon the product of an estate, +without the right of property, or the merit of labour, and who impoverishes +at once the landlord and the tenant. The land, say they, is let +to the Tacksman at sixpence an acre, and by him to the tenant at ten-pence. +Let the owner be the immediate landlord to all the tenants; if he sets +the ground at eight-pence, he will increase his revenue by a fourth +part, and the tenant’s burthen will be diminished by a fifth.</p> +<p>Those who pursue this train of reasoning, seem not sufficiently to +inquire whither it will lead them, nor to know that it will equally +shew the propriety of suppressing all wholesale trade, of shutting up +the shops of every man who sells what he does not make, and of extruding +all whose agency and profit intervene between the manufacturer and the +consumer. They may, by stretching their understandings a little +wider, comprehend, that all those who by undertaking large quantities +of manufacture, and affording employment to many labourers, make themselves +considered as benefactors to the publick, have only been robbing their +workmen with one hand, and their customers with the other. If +Crowley had sold only what he could make, and all his smiths had wrought +their own iron with their own hammers, he would have lived on less, +and they would have sold their work for more. The salaries of +superintendents and clerks would have been partly saved, and partly +shared, and nails been sometimes cheaper by a farthing in a hundred. +But then if the smith could not have found an immediate purchaser, he +must have deserted his anvil; if there had by accident at any time been +more sellers than buyers, the workmen must have reduced their profit +to nothing, by underselling one another; and as no great stock could +have been in any hand, no sudden demand of large quantities could have +been answered and the builder must have stood still till the nailer +could supply him.</p> +<p>According to these schemes, universal plenty is to begin and end +in universal misery. Hope and emulation will be utterly extinguished; +and as all must obey the call of immediate necessity, nothing that requires +extensive views, or provides for distant consequences will ever be performed.</p> +<p>To the southern inhabitants of Scotland, the state of the mountains +and the islands is equally unknown with that of Borneo or Sumatra: Of +both they have only heard a little, and guess the rest. They are +strangers to the language and the manners, to the advantages and wants +of the people, whose life they would model, and whose evils they would +remedy.</p> +<p>Nothing is less difficult than to procure one convenience by the +forfeiture of another. A soldier may expedite his march by throwing +away his arms. To banish the Tacksman is easy, to make a country +plentiful by diminishing the people, is an expeditious mode of husbandry; +but little abundance, which there is nobody to enjoy, contributes little +to human happiness.</p> +<p>As the mind must govern the hands, so in every society the man of +intelligence must direct the man of labour. If the Tacksmen be +taken away, the Hebrides must in their present state be given up to +grossness and ignorance; the tenant, for want of instruction, will be +unskilful, and for want of admonition will be negligent. The Laird +in these wide estates, which often consist of islands remote from one +another, cannot extend his personal influence to all his tenants; and +the steward having no dignity annexed to his character, can have little +authority among men taught to pay reverence only to birth, and who regard +the Tacksman as their hereditary superior; nor can the steward have +equal zeal for the prosperity of an estate profitable only to the Laird, +with the Tacksman, who has the Laird’s income involved in his +own.</p> +<p>The only gentlemen in the Islands are the Lairds, the Tacksmen, and +the Ministers, who frequently improve their livings by becoming farmers. +If the Tacksmen be banished, who will be left to impart knowledge, or +impress civility? The Laird must always be at a distance from +the greater part of his lands; and if he resides at all upon them, must +drag his days in solitude, having no longer either a friend or a companion; +he will therefore depart to some more comfortable residence, and leave +the tenants to the wisdom and mercy of a factor.</p> +<p>Of tenants there are different orders, as they have greater or less +stock. Land is sometimes leased to a small fellowship, who live +in a cluster of huts, called a Tenants Town, and are bound jointly and +separately for the payment of their rent. These, I believe, employ +in the care of their cattle, and the labour of tillage, a kind of tenants +yet lower; who having a hut with grass for a certain number of cows +and sheep, pay their rent by a stipulated quantity of labour.</p> +<p>The condition of domestick servants, or the price of occasional labour, +I do not know with certainty. I was told that the maids have sheep, +and are allowed to spin for their own clothing; perhaps they have no +pecuniary wages, or none but in very wealthy families. The state +of life, which has hitherto been purely pastoral, begins now to be a +little variegated with commerce; but novelties enter by degrees, and +till one mode has fully prevailed over the other, no settled notion +can be formed.</p> +<p>Such is the system of insular subordination, which, having little +variety, cannot afford much delight in the view, nor long detain the +mind in contemplation. The inhabitants were for a long time perhaps +not unhappy; but their content was a muddy mixture of pride and ignorance, +an indifference for pleasures which they did not know, a blind veneration +for their chiefs, and a strong conviction of their own importance.</p> +<p>Their pride has been crushed by the heavy hand of a vindictive conqueror, +whose seventies have been followed by laws, which, though they cannot +be called cruel, have produced much discontent, because they operate +upon the surface of life, and make every eye bear witness to subjection. +To be compelled to a new dress has always been found painful.</p> +<p>Their Chiefs being now deprived of their jurisdiction, have already +lost much of their influence; and as they gradually degenerate from +patriarchal rulers to rapacious landlords, they will divest themselves +of the little that remains.</p> +<p>That dignity which they derived from an opinion of their military +importance, the law, which disarmed them, has abated. An old gentleman, +delighting himself with the recollection of better days, related, that +forty years ago, a Chieftain walked out attended by ten or twelve followers, +with their arms rattling. That animating rabble has now ceased. +The Chief has lost his formidable retinue; and the Highlander walks +his heath unarmed and defenceless, with the peaceable submission of +a French peasant or English cottager.</p> +<p>Their ignorance grows every day less, but their knowledge is yet +of little other use than to shew them their wants. They are now +in the period of education, and feel the uneasiness of discipline, without +yet perceiving the benefit of instruction.</p> +<p>The last law, by which the Highlanders are deprived of their arms, +has operated with efficacy beyond expectation. Of former statutes +made with the same design, the execution had been feeble, and the effect +inconsiderable. Concealment was undoubtedly practised, and perhaps +often with connivance. There was tenderness, or partiality, on +one side, and obstinacy on the other. But the law, which followed +the victory of Culloden, found the whole nation dejected and intimidated; +informations were given without danger, and without fear, and the arms +were collected with such rigour, that every house was despoiled of its +defence.</p> +<p>To disarm part of the Highlands, could give no reasonable occasion +of complaint. Every government must be allowed the power of taking +away the weapon that is lifted against it. But the loyal clans +murmured, with some appearance of justice, that after having defended +the King, they were forbidden for the future to defend themselves; and +that the sword should be forfeited, which had been legally employed. +Their case is undoubtedly hard, but in political regulations, good cannot +be complete, it can only be predominant.</p> +<p>Whether by disarming a people thus broken into several tribes, and +thus remote from the seat of power, more good than evil has been produced, +may deserve inquiry. The supreme power in every community has +the right of debarring every individual, and every subordinate society +from self-defence, only because the supreme power is able to defend +them; and therefore where the governor cannot act, he must trust the +subject to act for himself. These Islands might be wasted with +fire and sword before their sovereign would know their distress. +A gang of robbers, such as has been lately found confederating themselves +in the Highlands, might lay a wide region under contribution. +The crew of a petty privateer might land on the largest and most wealthy +of the Islands, and riot without control in cruelty and waste. +It was observed by one of the Chiefs of Sky, that fifty armed men might, +without resistance ravage the country. Laws that place the subjects +in such a state, contravene the first principles of the compact of authority: +they exact obedience, and yield no protection.</p> +<p>It affords a generous and manly pleasure to conceive a little nation +gathering its fruits and tending its herds with fearless confidence, +though it lies open on every side to invasion, where, in contempt of +walls and trenches, every man sleeps securely with his sword beside +him; where all on the first approach of hostility came together at the +call to battle, as at a summons to a festal show; and committing their +cattle to the care of those whom age or nature has disabled, engage +the enemy with that competition for hazard and for glory, which operate +in men that fight under the eye of those, whose dislike or kindness +they have always considered as the greatest evil or the greatest good.</p> +<p>This was, in the beginning of the present century, the state of the +Highlands. Every man was a soldier, who partook of national confidence, +and interested himself in national honour. To lose this spirit, +is to lose what no small advantage will compensate.</p> +<p>It may likewise deserve to be inquired, whether a great nation ought +to be totally commercial? whether amidst the uncertainty of human affairs, +too much attention to one mode of happiness may not endanger others? +whether the pride of riches must not sometimes have recourse to the +protection of courage? and whether, if it be necessary to preserve in +some part of the empire the military spirit, it can subsist more commodiously +in any place, than in remote and unprofitable provinces, where it can +commonly do little harm, and whence it may be called forth at any sudden +exigence?</p> +<p>It must however be confessed, that a man, who places honour only +in successful violence, is a very troublesome and pernicious animal +in time of peace; and that the martial character cannot prevail in a +whole people, but by the diminution of all other virtues. He that +is accustomed to resolve all right into conquest, will have very little +tenderness or equity. All the friendship in such a life can be +only a confederacy of invasion, or alliance of defence. The strong +must flourish by force, and the weak subsist by stratagem.</p> +<p>Till the Highlanders lost their ferocity, with their arms, they suffered +from each other all that malignity could dictate, or precipitance could +act. Every provocation was revenged with blood, and no man that +ventured into a numerous company, by whatever occasion brought together, +was sure of returning without a wound. If they are now exposed +to foreign hostilities, they may talk of the danger, but can seldom +feel it. If they are no longer martial, they are no longer quarrelsome. +Misery is caused for the most part, not by a heavy crush of disaster, +but by the corrosion of less visible evils, which canker enjoyment, +and undermine security. The visit of an invader is necessarily +rare, but domestick animosities allow no cessation.</p> +<p>The abolition of the local jurisdictions, which had for so many ages +been exercised by the chiefs, has likewise its evil and its good. +The feudal constitution naturally diffused itself into long ramifications +of subordinate authority. To this general temper of the government +was added the peculiar form of the country, broken by mountains into +many subdivisions scarcely accessible but to the natives, and guarded +by passes, or perplexed with intricacies, through which national justice +could not find its way.</p> +<p>The power of deciding controversies, and of punishing offences, as +some such power there must always be, was intrusted to the Lairds of +the country, to those whom the people considered as their natural judges. +It cannot be supposed that a rugged proprietor of the rocks, unprincipled +and unenlightened, was a nice resolver of entangled claims, or very +exact in proportioning punishment to offences. But the more he +indulged his own will, the more he held his vassals in dependence. +Prudence and innocence, without the favour of the Chief, conferred no +security; and crimes involved no danger, when the judge was resolute +to acquit.</p> +<p>When the chiefs were men of knowledge and virtue, the convenience +of a domestick judicature was great. No long journies were necessary, +nor artificial delays could be practised; the character, the alliances, +and interests of the litigants were known to the court, and all false +pretences were easily detected. The sentence, when it was past, +could not be evaded; the power of the Laird superseded formalities, +and justice could not be defeated by interest or stratagem.</p> +<p>I doubt not but that since the regular judges have made their circuits +through the whole country, right has been every where more wisely, and +more equally distributed; the complaint is, that litigation is grown +troublesome, and that the magistrates are too few, and therefore often +too remote for general convenience.</p> +<p>Many of the smaller Islands have no legal officer within them. +I once asked, If a crime should be committed, by what authority the +offender could be seized? and was told, that the Laird would exert his +right; a right which he must now usurp, but which surely necessity must +vindicate, and which is therefore yet exercised in lower degrees, by +some of the proprietors, when legal processes cannot be obtained.</p> +<p>In all greater questions, however, there is now happily an end to +all fear or hope from malice or from favour. The roads are secure +in those places through which, forty years ago, no traveller could pass +without a convoy. All trials of right by the sword are forgotten, +and the mean are in as little danger from the powerful as in other places. +No scheme of policy has, in any country, yet brought the rich and poor +on equal terms into courts of judicature. Perhaps experience, +improving on experience, may in time effect it.</p> +<p>Those who have long enjoyed dignity and power, ought not to lose +it without some equivalent. There was paid to the Chiefs by the +publick, in exchange for their privileges, perhaps a sum greater than +most of them had ever possessed, which excited a thirst for riches, +of which it shewed them the use. When the power of birth and station +ceases, no hope remains but from the prevalence of money. Power +and wealth supply the place of each other. Power confers the ability +of gratifying our desire without the consent of others. Wealth +enables us to obtain the consent of others to our gratification. +Power, simply considered, whatever it confers on one, must take from +another. Wealth enables its owner to give to others, by taking +only from himself. Power pleases the violent and proud: wealth +delights the placid and the timorous. Youth therefore flies at +power, and age grovels after riches.</p> +<p>The Chiefs, divested of their prerogatives, necessarily turned their +thoughts to the improvement of their revenues, and expect more rent, +as they have less homage. The tenant, who is far from perceiving +that his condition is made better in the same proportion, as that of +his landlord is made worse, does not immediately see why his industry +is to be taxed more heavily than before. He refuses to pay the +demand, and is ejected; the ground is then let to a stranger, who perhaps +brings a larger stock, but who, taking the land at its full price, treats +with the Laird upon equal terms, and considers him not as a Chief, but +as a trafficker in land. Thus the estate perhaps is improved, +but the clan is broken.</p> +<p>It seems to be the general opinion, that the rents have been raised +with too much eagerness. Some regard must be paid to prejudice. +Those who have hitherto paid but little, will not suddenly be persuaded +to pay much, though they can afford it. As ground is gradually +improved, and the value of money decreases, the rent may be raised without +any diminution of the farmer’s profits: yet it is necessary in +these countries, where the ejection of a tenant is a greater evil, than +in more populous places, to consider not merely what the land will produce, +but with what ability the inhabitant can cultivate it. A certain +stock can allow but a certain payment; for if the land be doubled, and +the stock remains the same, the tenant becomes no richer. The +proprietors of the Highlands might perhaps often increase their income, +by subdividing the farms, and allotting to every occupier only so many +acres as he can profitably employ, but that they want people.</p> +<p>There seems now, whatever be the cause, to be through a great part +of the Highlands a general discontent. That adherence, which was +lately professed by every man to the chief of his name, has now little +prevalence; and he that cannot live as he desires at home, listens to +the tale of fortunate islands, and happy regions, where every man may +have land of his own, and eat the product of his labour without a superior.</p> +<p>Those who have obtained grants of American lands, have, as is well +known, invited settlers from all quarters of the globe; and among other +places, where oppression might produce a wish for new habitations, their +emissaries would not fail to try their persuasions in the Isles of Scotland, +where at the time when the clans were newly disunited from their Chiefs, +and exasperated by unprecedented exactions, it is no wonder that they +prevailed.</p> +<p>Whether the mischiefs of emigration were immediately perceived, may +be justly questioned. They who went first, were probably such +as could best be spared; but the accounts sent by the earliest adventurers, +whether true or false, inclined many to follow them; and whole neighbourhoods +formed parties for removal; so that departure from their native country +is no longer exile. He that goes thus accompanied, carries with +him all that makes life pleasant. He sits down in a better climate, +surrounded by his kindred and his friends: they carry with them their +language, their opinions, their popular songs, and hereditary merriment: +they change nothing but the place of their abode; and of that change +they perceive the benefit.</p> +<p>This is the real effect of emigration, if those that go away together +settle on the same spot, and preserve their ancient union. But +some relate that these adventurous visitants of unknown regions, after +a voyage passed in dreams of plenty and felicity, are dispersed at last +upon a Sylvan wilderness, where their first years must be spent in toil, +to clear the ground which is afterwards to be tilled, and that the whole +effect of their undertakings is only more fatigue and equal scarcity.</p> +<p>Both accounts may be suspected. Those who are gone will endeavour +by every art to draw others after them; for as their numbers are greater, +they will provide better for themselves. When Nova Scotia was +first peopled, I remember a letter, published under the character of +a New Planter, who related how much the climate put him in mind of Italy. +Such intelligence the Hebridians probably receive from their transmarine +correspondents. But with equal temptations of interest, and perhaps +with no greater niceness of veracity, the owners of the Islands spread +stories of American hardships to keep their people content at home.</p> +<p>Some method to stop this epidemick desire of wandering, which spreads +its contagion from valley to valley, deserves to be sought with great +diligence. In more fruitful countries, the removal of one only +makes room for the succession of another: but in the Hebrides, the loss +of an inhabitant leaves a lasting vacuity; for nobody born in any other +parts of the world will choose this country for his residence, and an +Island once depopulated will remain a desert, as long as the present +facility of travel gives every one, who is discontented and unsettled, +the choice of his abode.</p> +<p>Let it be inquired, whether the first intention of those who are +fluttering on the wing, and collecting a flock that they may take their +flight, be to attain good, or to avoid evil. If they are dissatisfied +with that part of the globe, which their birth has allotted them, and +resolve not to live without the pleasures of happier climates; if they +long for bright suns, and calm skies, and flowery fields, and fragrant +gardens, I know not by what eloquence they can be persuaded, or by what +offers they can be hired to stay.</p> +<p>But if they are driven from their native country by positive evils, +and disgusted by ill-treatment, real or imaginary, it were fit to remove +their grievances, and quiet their resentment; since, if they have been +hitherto undutiful subjects, they will not much mend their principles +by American conversation.</p> +<p>To allure them into the army, it was thought proper to indulge them +in the continuance of their national dress. If this concession +could have any effect, it might easily be made. That dissimilitude +of appearance, which was supposed to keep them distinct from the rest +of the nation, might disincline them from coalescing with the Pensylvanians, +or people of Connecticut. If the restitution of their arms will +reconcile them to their country, let them have again those weapons, +which will not be more mischievous at home than in the Colonies. +That they may not fly from the increase of rent, I know not whether +the general good does not require that the landlords be, for a time, +restrained in their demands, and kept quiet by pensions proportionate +to their loss.</p> +<p>To hinder insurrection, by driving away the people, and to govern +peaceably, by having no subjects, is an expedient that argues no great +profundity of politicks. To soften the obdurate, to convince the +mistaken, to mollify the resentful, are worthy of a statesman; but it +affords a legislator little self-applause to consider, that where there +was formerly an insurrection, there is now a wilderness.</p> +<p>It has been a question often agitated without solution, why those +northern regions are now so thinly peopled, which formerly overwhelmed +with their armies the Roman empire. The question supposes what +I believe is not true, that they had once more inhabitants than they +could maintain, and overflowed only because they were full.</p> +<p>This is to estimate the manners of all countries and ages by our +own. Migration, while the state of life was unsettled, and there +was little communication of intelligence between distant places, was +among the wilder nations of Europe, capricious and casual. An +adventurous projector heard of a fertile coast unoccupied, and led out +a colony; a chief of renown for bravery, called the young men together, +and led them out to try what fortune would present. When Cæsar +was in Gaul, he found the Helvetians preparing to go they knew not whither, +and put a stop to their motions. They settled again in their own +country, where they were so far from wanting room, that they had accumulated +three years provision for their march.</p> +<p>The religion of the North was military; if they could not find enemies, +it was their duty to make them: they travelled in quest of danger, and +willingly took the chance of Empire or Death. If their troops +were numerous, the countries from which they were collected are of vast +extent, and without much exuberance of people great armies may be raised +where every man is a soldier. But their true numbers were never +known. Those who were conquered by them are their historians, +and shame may have excited them to say, that they were overwhelmed with +multitudes. To count is a modern practice, the ancient method +was to guess; and when numbers are guessed they are always magnified.</p> +<p>Thus England has for several years been filled with the atchievements +of seventy thousand Highlanders employed in America. I have heard +from an English officer, not much inclined to favour them, that their +behaviour deserved a very high degree of military praise; but their +number has been much exaggerated. One of the ministers told me, +that seventy thousand men could not have been found in all the Highlands, +and that more than twelve thousand never took the field. Those +that went to the American war, went to destruction. Of the old +Highland regiment, consisting of twelve hundred, only seventy-six survived +to see their country again.</p> +<p>The Gothick swarms have at least been multiplied with equal liberality. +That they bore no great proportion to the inhabitants, in whose countries +they settled, is plain from the paucity of northern words now found +in the provincial languages. Their country was not deserted for +want of room, because it was covered with forests of vast extent; and +the first effect of plenitude of inhabitants is the destruction of wood. +As the Europeans spread over America the lands are gradually laid naked.</p> +<p>I would not be understood to say, that necessity had never any part +in their expeditions. A nation, whose agriculture is scanty or +unskilful, may be driven out by famine. A nation of hunters may +have exhausted their game. I only affirm that the northern regions +were not, when their irruptions subdued the Romans, overpeopled with +regard to their real extent of territory, and power of fertility. +In a country fully inhabited, however afterward laid waste, evident +marks will remain of its former populousness. But of Scandinavia +and Germany, nothing is known but that as we trace their state upwards +into antiquity, their woods were greater, and their cultivated ground +was less.</p> +<p>That causes were different from want of room may produce a general +disposition to seek another country is apparent from the present conduct +of the Highlanders, who are in some places ready to threaten a total +secession. The numbers which have already gone, though like other +numbers they may be magnified, are very great, and such as if they had +gone together and agreed upon any certain settlement, might have founded +an independent government in the depths of the western continent. +Nor are they only the lowest and most indigent; many men of considerable +wealth have taken with them their train of labourers and dependants; +and if they continue the feudal scheme of polity, may establish new +clans in the other hemisphere.</p> +<p>That the immediate motives of their desertion must be imputed to +their landlords, may be reasonably concluded, because some Lairds of +more prudence and less rapacity have kept their vassals undiminished. +From Raasa only one man had been seduced, and at Col there was no wish +to go away.</p> +<p>The traveller who comes hither from more opulent countries, to speculate +upon the remains of pastoral life, will not much wonder that a common +Highlander has no strong adherence to his native soil; for of animal +enjoyments, or of physical good, he leaves nothing that he may not find +again wheresoever he may be thrown.</p> +<p>The habitations of men in the Hebrides may be distinguished into +huts and houses. By a house, I mean a building with one story +over another; by a hut, a dwelling with only one floor. The Laird, +who formerly lived in a castle, now lives in a house; sometimes sufficiently +neat, but seldom very spacious or splendid. The Tacksmen and the +Ministers have commonly houses. Wherever there is a house, the +stranger finds a welcome, and to the other evils of exterminating Tacksmen +may be added the unavoidable cessation of hospitality, or the devolution +of too heavy a burden on the Ministers.</p> +<p>Of the houses little can be said. They are small, and by the +necessity of accumulating stores, where there are so few opportunities +of purchase, the rooms are very heterogeneously filled. With want +of cleanliness it were ingratitude to reproach them. The servants +having been bred upon the naked earth, think every floor clean, and +the quick succession of guests, perhaps not always over-elegant, does +not allow much time for adjusting their apartments.</p> +<p>Huts are of many gradations; from murky dens, to commodious dwellings.</p> +<p>The wall of a common hut is always built without mortar, by a skilful +adaptation of loose stones. Sometimes perhaps a double wall of +stones is raised, and the intermediate space filled with earth. +The air is thus completely excluded. Some walls are, I think, +formed of turfs, held together by a wattle, or texture of twigs. +Of the meanest huts, the first room is lighted by the entrance, and +the second by the smoke hole. The fire is usually made in the +middle. But there are huts, or dwellings of only one story, inhabited +by gentlemen, which have walls cemented with mortar, glass windows, +and boarded floors. Of these all have chimneys, and some chimneys +have grates.</p> +<p>The house and the furniture are not always nicely suited. We +were driven once, by missing a passage, to the hut of a gentleman, where, +after a very liberal supper, when I was conducted to my chamber, I found +an elegant bed of Indian cotton, spread with fine sheets. The +accommodation was flattering; I undressed myself, and felt my feet in +the mire. The bed stood upon the bare earth, which a long course +of rain had softened to a puddle.</p> +<p>In pastoral countries the condition of the lowest rank of people +is sufficiently wretched. Among manufacturers, men that have no +property may have art and industry, which make them necessary, and therefore +valuable. But where flocks and corn are the only wealth, there +are always more hands than work, and of that work there is little in +which skill and dexterity can be much distinguished. He therefore +who is born poor never can be rich. The son merely occupies the +place of the father, and life knows nothing of progression or advancement.</p> +<p>The petty tenants, and labouring peasants, live in miserable cabins, +which afford them little more than shelter from the storms. The +Boor of Norway is said to make all his own utensils. In the Hebrides, +whatever might be their ingenuity, the want of wood leaves them no materials. +They are probably content with such accommodations as stones of different +forms and sizes can afford them.</p> +<p>Their food is not better than their lodging. They seldom taste +the flesh of land animals; for here are no markets. What each +man eats is from his own stock. The great effect of money is to +break property into small parts. In towns, he that has a shilling +may have a piece of meat; but where there is no commerce, no man can +eat mutton but by killing a sheep.</p> +<p>Fish in fair weather they need not want; but, I believe, man never +lives long on fish, but by constraint; he will rather feed upon roots +and berries.</p> +<p>The only fewel of the Islands is peat. Their wood is all consumed, +and coal they have not yet found. Peat is dug out of the marshes, +from the depth of one foot to that of six. That is accounted the +best which is nearest the surface. It appears to be a mass of +black earth held together by vegetable fibres. I know not whether +the earth be bituminous, or whether the fibres be not the only combustible +part; which, by heating the interposed earth red hot, make a burning +mass. The heat is not very strong nor lasting. The ashes +are yellowish, and in a large quantity. When they dig peat, they +cut it into square pieces, and pile it up to dry beside the house. +In some places it has an offensive smell. It is like wood charked +for the smith. The common method of making peat fires, is by heaping +it on the hearth; but it burns well in grates, and in the best houses +is so used.</p> +<p>The common opinion is, that peat grows again where it has been cut; +which, as it seems to be chiefly a vegetable substance, is not unlikely +to be true, whether known or not to those who relate it.</p> +<p>There are water mills in Sky and Raasa; but where they are too far +distant, the house-wives grind their oats with a quern, or hand-mill, +which consists of two stones, about a foot and a half in diameter; the +lower is a little convex, to which the concavity of the upper must be +fitted. In the middle of the upper stone is a round hole, and +on one side is a long handle. The grinder sheds the corn gradually +into the hole with one hand, and works the handle round with the other. +The corn slides down the convexity of the lower stone, and by the motion +of the upper is ground in its passage. These stones are found +in Lochabar.</p> +<p>The Islands afford few pleasures, except to the hardy sportsman, +who can tread the moor and climb the mountain. The distance of +one family from another, in a country where travelling has so much difficulty, +makes frequent intercourse impracticable. Visits last several +days, and are commonly paid by water; yet I never saw a boat furnished +with benches, or made commodious by any addition to the first fabric. +Conveniences are not missed where they never were enjoyed.</p> +<p>The solace which the bagpipe can give, they have long enjoyed; but +among other changes, which the last Revolution introduced, the use of +the bagpipe begins to be forgotten. Some of the chief families +still entertain a piper, whose office was anciently hereditary. +Macrimmon was piper to Macleod, and Rankin to Maclean of Col.</p> +<p>The tunes of the bagpipe are traditional. There has been in +Sky, beyond all time of memory, a college of pipers, under the direction +of Macrimmon, which is not quite extinct. There was another in +Mull, superintended by Rankin, which expired about sixteen years ago. +To these colleges, while the pipe retained its honour, the students +of musick repaired for education. I have had my dinner exhilarated +by the bagpipe, at Armidale, at Dunvegan, and in Col.</p> +<p>The general conversation of the Islanders has nothing particular. +I did not meet with the inquisitiveness of which I have read, and suspect +the judgment to have been rashly made. A stranger of curiosity +comes into a place where a stranger is seldom seen: he importunes the +people with questions, of which they cannot guess the motive, and gazes +with surprise on things which they, having had them always before their +eyes, do not suspect of any thing wonderful. He appears to them +like some being of another world, and then thinks it peculiar that they +take their turn to inquire whence he comes, and whither he is going.</p> +<p>The Islands were long unfurnished with instruction for youth, and +none but the sons of gentlemen could have any literature. There +are now parochial schools, to which the lord of every manor pays a certain +stipend. Here the children are taught to read; but by the rule +of their institution, they teach only English, so that the natives read +a language which they may never use or understand. If a parish, +which often happens, contains several Islands, the school being but +in one, cannot assist the rest. This is the state of Col, which, +however, is more enlightened than some other places; for the deficiency +is supplied by a young gentleman, who, for his own improvement, travels +every year on foot over the Highlands to the session at Aberdeen; and +at his return, during the vacation, teaches to read and write in his +native Island.</p> +<p>In Sky there are two grammar schools, where boarders are taken to +be regularly educated. The price of board is from three pounds, +to four pounds ten shillings a year, and that of instruction is half +a crown a quarter. But the scholars are birds of passage, who +live at school only in the summer; for in winter provisions cannot be +made for any considerable number in one place. This periodical +dispersion impresses strongly the scarcity of these countries.</p> +<p>Having heard of no boarding-school for ladies nearer than Inverness, +I suppose their education is generally domestick. The elder daughters +of the higher families are sent into the world, and may contribute by +their acquisitions to the improvement of the rest.</p> +<p>Women must here study to be either pleasing or useful. Their +deficiencies are seldom supplied by very liberal fortunes. A hundred +pounds is a portion beyond the hope of any but the Laird’s daughter. +They do not indeed often give money with their daughters; the question +is, How many cows a young lady will bring her husband. A rich +maiden has from ten to forty; but two cows are a decent fortune for +one who pretends to no distinction.</p> +<p>The religion of the Islands is that of the Kirk of Scotland. +The gentlemen with whom I conversed are all inclined to the English +liturgy; but they are obliged to maintain the established Minister, +and the country is too poor to afford payment to another, who must live +wholly on the contribution of his audience.</p> +<p>They therefore all attend the worship of the Kirk, as often as a +visit from their Minister, or the practicability of travelling gives +them opportunity; nor have they any reason to complain of insufficient +pastors; for I saw not one in the Islands, whom I had reason to think +either deficient in learning, or irregular in life: but found several +with whom I could not converse without wishing, as my respect increased, +that they had not been Presbyterians.</p> +<p>The ancient rigour of puritanism is now very much relaxed, though +all are not yet equally enlightened. I sometimes met with prejudices +sufficiently malignant, but they were prejudices of ignorance. +The Ministers in the Islands had attained such knowledge as may justly +be admired in men, who have no motive to study, but generous curiosity, +or, what is still better, desire of usefulness; with such politeness +as so narrow a circle of converse could not have supplied, but to minds +naturally disposed to elegance.</p> +<p>Reason and truth will prevail at last. The most learned of +the Scottish Doctors would now gladly admit a form of prayer, if the +people would endure it. The zeal or rage of congregations has +its different degrees. In some parishes the Lord’s Prayer +is suffered: in others it is still rejected as a form; and he that should +make it part of his supplication would be suspected of heretical pravity.</p> +<p>The principle upon which extemporary prayer was originally introduced, +is no longer admitted. The Minister formerly, in the effusion +of his prayer, expected immediate, and perhaps perceptible inspiration, +and therefore thought it his duty not to think before what he should +say. It is now universally confessed, that men pray as they speak +on other occasions, according to the general measure of their abilities +and attainments. Whatever each may think of a form prescribed +by another, he cannot but believe that he can himself compose by study +and meditation a better prayer than will rise in his mind at a sudden +call; and if he has any hope of supernatural help, why may he not as +well receive it when he writes as when he speaks?</p> +<p>In the variety of mental powers, some must perform extemporary prayer +with much imperfection; and in the eagerness and rashness of contradictory +opinions, if publick liturgy be left to the private judgment of every +Minister, the congregation may often be offended or misled.</p> +<p>There is in Scotland, as among ourselves, a restless suspicion of +popish machinations, and a clamour of numerous converts to the Romish +religion. The report is, I believe, in both parts of the Island +equally false. The Romish religion is professed only in Egg and +Canna, two small islands, into which the Reformation never made its +way. If any missionaries are busy in the Highlands, their zeal +entitles them to respect, even from those who cannot think favourably +of their doctrine.</p> +<p>The political tenets of the Islanders I was not curious to investigate, +and they were not eager to obtrude. Their conversation is decent +and inoffensive. They disdain to drink for their principles, and +there is no disaffection at their tables. I never heard a health +offered by a Highlander that might not have circulated with propriety +within the precincts of the King’s palace.</p> +<p>Legal government has yet something of novelty to which they cannot +perfectly conform. The ancient spirit, that appealed only to the +sword, is yet among them. The tenant of Scalpa, an island belonging +to Macdonald, took no care to bring his rent; when the landlord talked +of exacting payment, he declared his resolution to keep his ground, +and drive all intruders from the Island, and continued to feed his cattle +as on his own land, till it became necessary for the Sheriff to dislodge +him by violence.</p> +<p>The various kinds of superstition which prevailed here, as in all +other regions of ignorance, are by the diligence of the Ministers almost +extirpated.</p> +<p>Of Browny, mentioned by Martin, nothing has been heard for many years. +Browny was a sturdy Fairy; who, if he was fed, and kindly treated, would, +as they said, do a great deal of work. They now pay him no wages, +and are content to labour for themselves.</p> +<p>In Troda, within these three-and-thirty years, milk was put every +Saturday for Greogach, or ‘the Old Man with the Long Beard.’ +Whether Greogach was courted as kind, or dreaded as terrible, whether +they meant, by giving him the milk, to obtain good, or avert evil, I +was not informed. The Minister is now living by whom the practice +was abolished.</p> +<p>They have still among them a great number of charms for the cure +of different diseases; they are all invocations, perhaps transmitted +to them from the times of popery, which increasing knowledge will bring +into disuse.</p> +<p>They have opinions, which cannot be ranked with superstition, because +they regard only natural effects. They expect better crops of +grain, by sowing their seed in the moon’s increase. The +moon has great influence in vulgar philosophy. In my memory it +was a precept annually given in one of the English Almanacks, ‘to +kill hogs when the moon was increasing, and the bacon would prove the +better in boiling.’</p> +<p>We should have had little claim to the praise of curiosity, if we +had not endeavoured with particular attention to examine the question +of the Second Sight. Of an opinion received for centuries by a +whole nation, and supposed to be confirmed through its whole descent, +by a series of successive facts, it is desirable that the truth should +be established, or the fallacy detected.</p> +<p>The Second Sight is an impression made either by the mind upon the +eye, or by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant or future +are perceived, and seen as if they were present. A man on a journey +far from home falls from his horse, another, who is perhaps at work +about the house, sees him bleeding on the ground, commonly with a landscape +of the place where the accident befalls him. Another seer, driving +home his cattle, or wandering in idleness, or musing in the sunshine, +is suddenly surprised by the appearance of a bridal ceremony, or funeral +procession, and counts the mourners or attendants, of whom, if he knows +them, he relates the names, if he knows them not, he can describe the +dresses. Things distant are seen at the instant when they happen. +Of things future I know not that there is any rule for determining the +time between the Sight and the event.</p> +<p>This receptive faculty, for power it cannot be called, is neither +voluntary nor constant. The appearances have no dependence upon +choice: they cannot be summoned, detained, or recalled. The impression +is sudden, and the effect often painful.</p> +<p>By the term Second Sight, seems to be meant a mode of seeing, superadded +to that which Nature generally bestows. In the Earse it is called +Taisch; which signifies likewise a spectre, or a vision. I know +not, nor is it likely that the Highlanders ever examined, whether by +Taisch, used for Second Sight, they mean the power of seeing, or the +thing seen.</p> +<p>I do not find it to be true, as it is reported, that to the Second +Sight nothing is presented but phantoms of evil. Good seems to +have the same proportions in those visionary scenes, as it obtains in +real life: almost all remarkable events have evil for their basis; and +are either miseries incurred, or miseries escaped. Our sense is +so much stronger of what we suffer, than of what we enjoy, that the +ideas of pain predominate in almost every mind. What is recollection +but a revival of vexations, or history but a record of wars, treasons, +and calamities? Death, which is considered as the greatest evil, +happens to all. The greatest good, be it what it will, is the +lot but of a part.</p> +<p>That they should often see death is to be expected; because death +is an event frequent and important. But they see likewise more +pleasing incidents. A gentleman told me, that when he had once +gone far from his own Island, one of his labouring servants predicted +his return, and described the livery of his attendant, which he had +never worn at home; and which had been, without any previous design, +occasionally given him.</p> +<p>Our desire of information was keen, and our inquiry frequent. +Mr. Boswell’s frankness and gaiety made every body communicative; +and we heard many tales of these airy shows, with more or less evidence +and distinctness.</p> +<p>It is the common talk of the Lowland Scots, that the notion of the +Second Sight is wearing away with other superstitions; and that its +reality is no longer supposed, but by the grossest people. How +far its prevalence ever extended, or what ground it has lost, I know +not. The Islanders of all degrees, whether of rank or understanding, +universally admit it, except the Ministers, who universally deny it, +and are suspected to deny it, in consequence of a system, against conviction. +One of them honestly told me, that he came to Sky with a resolution +not to believe it.</p> +<p>Strong reasons for incredulity will readily occur. This faculty +of seeing things out of sight is local, and commonly useless. +It is a breach of the common order of things, without any visible reason +or perceptible benefit. It is ascribed only to a people very little +enlightened; and among them, for the most part, to the mean and the +ignorant.</p> +<p>To the confidence of these objections it may be replied, that by +presuming to determine what is fit, and what is beneficial, they presuppose +more knowledge of the universal system than man has attained; and therefore +depend upon principles too complicated and extensive for our comprehension; +and that there can be no security in the consequence, when the premises +are not understood; that the Second Sight is only wonderful because +it is rare, for, considered in itself, it involves no more difficulty +than dreams, or perhaps than the regular exercise of the cogitative +faculty; that a general opinion of communicative impulses, or visionary +representations, has prevailed in all ages and all nations; that particular +instances have been given, with such evidence, as neither Bacon nor +Bayle has been able to resist; that sudden impressions, which the event +has verified, have been felt by more than own or publish them; that +the Second Sight of the Hebrides implies only the local frequency of +a power, which is nowhere totally unknown; and that where we are unable +to decide by antecedent reason, we must be content to yield to the force +of testimony.</p> +<p>By pretension to Second Sight, no profit was ever sought or gained. +It is an involuntary affection, in which neither hope nor fear are known +to have any part. Those who profess to feel it, do not boast of +it as a privilege, nor are considered by others as advantageously distinguished. +They have no temptation to feign; and their hearers have no motive to +encourage the imposture.</p> +<p>To talk with any of these seers is not easy. There is one living +in Sky, with whom we would have gladly conversed; but he was very gross +and ignorant, and knew no English. The proportion in these countries +of the poor to the rich is such, that if we suppose the quality to be +accidental, it can very rarely happen to a man of education; and yet +on such men it has sometimes fallen. There is now a Second Sighted +gentleman in the Highlands, who complains of the terrors to which he +is exposed.</p> +<p>The foresight of the Seers is not always prescience; they are impressed +with images, of which the event only shews them the meaning. They +tell what they have seen to others, who are at that time not more knowing +than themselves, but may become at last very adequate witnesses, by +comparing the narrative with its verification.</p> +<p>To collect sufficient testimonies for the satisfaction of the publick, +or of ourselves, would have required more time than we could bestow. +There is, against it, the seeming analogy of things confusedly seen, +and little understood, and for it, the indistinct cry of national persuasion, +which may be perhaps resolved at last into prejudice and tradition. +I never could advance my curiosity to conviction; but came away at last +only willing to believe.</p> +<p>As there subsists no longer in the Islands much of that peculiar +and discriminative form of life, of which the idea had delighted our +imagination, we were willing to listen to such accounts of past times +as would be given us. But we soon found what memorials were to +be expected from an illiterate people, whose whole time is a series +of distress; where every morning is labouring with expedients for the +evening; and where all mental pains or pleasure arose from the dread +of winter, the expectation of spring, the caprices of their Chiefs, +and the motions of the neighbouring clans; where there was neither shame +from ignorance, nor pride in knowledge; neither curiosity to inquire, +nor vanity to communicate.</p> +<p>The Chiefs indeed were exempt from urgent penury, and daily difficulties; +and in their houses were preserved what accounts remained of past ages. +But the Chiefs were sometimes ignorant and careless, and sometimes kept +busy by turbulence and contention; and one generation of ignorance effaces +the whole series of unwritten history. Books are faithful repositories, +which may be a while neglected or forgotten; but when they are opened +again, will again impart their instruction: memory, once interrupted, +is not to be recalled. Written learning is a fixed luminary, which, +after the cloud that had hidden it has past away, is again bright in +its proper station. Tradition is but a meteor, which, if once +it falls, cannot be rekindled.</p> +<p>It seems to be universally supposed, that much of the local history +was preserved by the Bards, of whom one is said to have been retained +by every great family. After these Bards were some of my first +inquiries; and I received such answers as, for a while, made me please +myself with my increase of knowledge; for I had not then learned how +to estimate the narration of a Highlander.</p> +<p>They said that a great family had a Bard and a Senachi, who were +the poet and historian of the house; and an old gentleman told me that +he remembered one of each. Here was a dawn of intelligence. +Of men that had lived within memory, some certain knowledge might be +attained. Though the office had ceased, its effects might continue; +the poems might be found, though there was no poet.</p> +<p>Another conversation indeed informed me, that the same man was both +Bard and Senachi. This variation discouraged me; but as the practice +might be different in different times, or at the same time in different +families, there was yet no reason for supposing that I must necessarily +sit down in total ignorance.</p> +<p>Soon after I was told by a gentleman, who is generally acknowledged +the greatest master of Hebridian antiquities, that there had indeed +once been both Bards and Senachies; and that Senachi signified ‘the +man of talk,’ or of conversation; but that neither Bard nor Senachi +had existed for some centuries. I have no reason to suppose it +exactly known at what time the custom ceased, nor did it probably cease +in all houses at once. But whenever the practice of recitation +was disused, the works, whether poetical or historical, perished with +the authors; for in those times nothing had been written in the Earse +language.</p> +<p>Whether the ‘Man of talk’ was a historian, whose office +was to tell truth, or a story-teller, like those which were in the last +century, and perhaps are now among the Irish, whose trade was only to +amuse, it now would be vain to inquire.</p> +<p>Most of the domestick offices were, I believe, hereditary; and probably +the laureat of a clan was always the son of the last laureat. +The history of the race could no otherwise be communicated, or retained; +but what genius could be expected in a poet by inheritance?</p> +<p>The nation was wholly illiterate. Neither bards nor Senachies +could write or read; but if they were ignorant, there was no danger +of detection; they were believed by those whose vanity they flattered.</p> +<p>The recital of genealogies, which has been considered as very efficacious +to the preservation of a true series of ancestry, was anciently made, +when the heir of the family came to manly age. This practice has +never subsisted within time of memory, nor was much credit due to such +rehearsers, who might obtrude fictitious pedigrees, either to please +their masters, or to hide the deficiency of their own memories.</p> +<p>Where the Chiefs of the Highlands have found the histories of their +descent is difficult to tell; for no Earse genealogy was ever written. +In general this only is evident, that the principal house of a clan +must be very ancient, and that those must have lived long in a place, +of whom it is not known when they came thither.</p> +<p>Thus hopeless are all attempts to find any traces of Highland learning. +Nor are their primitive customs and ancient manner of life otherwise +than very faintly and uncertainly remembered by the present race.</p> +<p>The peculiarities which strike the native of a commercial country, +proceeded in a great measure from the want of money. To the servants +and dependents that were not domesticks, and if an estimate be made +from the capacity of any of their old houses which I have seen, their +domesticks could have been but few, were appropriated certain portions +of land for their support. Macdonald has a piece of ground yet, +called the Bards or Senachies field. When a beef was killed for +the house, particular parts were claimed as fees by the several officers, +or workmen. What was the right of each I have not learned. +The head belonged to the smith, and the udder of a cow to the piper: +the weaver had likewise his particular part; and so many pieces followed +these prescriptive claims, that the Laird’s was at last but little.</p> +<p>The payment of rent in kind has been so long disused in England, +that it is totally forgotten. It was practised very lately in +the Hebrides, and probably still continues, not only in St. Kilda, where +money is not yet known, but in others of the smaller and remoter Islands. +It were perhaps to be desired, that no change in this particular should +have been made. When the Laird could only eat the produce of his +lands, he was under the necessity of residing upon them; and when the +tenant could not convert his stock into more portable riches, he could +never be tempted away from his farm, from the only place where he could +be wealthy. Money confounds subordination, by overpowering the +distinctions of rank and birth, and weakens authority by supplying power +of resistance, or expedients for escape. The feudal system is +formed for a nation employed in agriculture, and has never long kept +its hold where gold and silver have become common.</p> +<p>Their arms were anciently the Glaymore, or great two-handed sword, +and afterwards the two-edged sword and target, or buckler, which was +sustained on the left arm. In the midst of the target, which was +made of wood, covered with leather, and studded with nails, a slender +lance, about two feet long, was sometimes fixed; it was heavy and cumberous, +and accordingly has for some time past been gradually laid aside. +Very few targets were at Culloden. The dirk, or broad dagger, +I am afraid, was of more use in private quarrels than in battles. +The Lochaber-ax is only a slight alteration of the old English bill.</p> +<p>After all that has been said of the force and terrour of the Highland +sword, I could not find that the art of defence was any part of common +education. The gentlemen were perhaps sometimes skilful gladiators, +but the common men had no other powers than those of violence and courage. +Yet it is well known, that the onset of the Highlanders was very formidable. +As an army cannot consist of philosophers, a panick is easily excited +by any unwonted mode of annoyance. New dangers are naturally magnified; +and men accustomed only to exchange bullets at a distance, and rather +to hear their enemies than see them, are discouraged and amazed when +they find themselves encountered hand to hand, and catch the gleam of +steel flashing in their faces.</p> +<p>The Highland weapons gave opportunity for many exertions of personal +courage, and sometimes for single combats in the field; like those which +occur so frequently in fabulous wars. At Falkirk, a gentleman +now living, was, I suppose after the retreat of the King’s troops, +engaged at a distance from the rest with an Irish dragoon. They +were both skilful swordsmen, and the contest was not easily decided: +the dragoon at last had the advantage, and the Highlander called for +quarter; but quarter was refused him, and the fight continued till he +was reduced to defend himself upon his knee. At that instant one +of the Macleods came to his rescue; who, as it is said, offered quarter +to the dragoon, but he thought himself obliged to reject what he had +before refused, and, as battle gives little time to deliberate, was +immediately killed.</p> +<p>Funerals were formerly solemnized by calling multitudes together, +and entertaining them at great expence. This emulation of useless +cost has been for some time discouraged, and at last in the Isle of +Sky is almost suppressed.</p> +<p>Of the Earse language, as I understand nothing, I cannot say more +than I have been told. It is the rude speech of a barbarous people, +who had few thoughts to express, and were content, as they conceived +grossly, to be grossly understood. After what has been lately +talked of Highland Bards, and Highland genius, many will startle when +they are told, that the Earse never was a written language; that there +is not in the world an Earse manuscript a hundred years old; and that +the sounds of the Highlanders were never expressed by letters, till +some little books of piety were translated, and a metrical version of +the Psalms was made by the Synod of Argyle. Whoever therefore +now writes in this language, spells according to his own perception +of the sound, and his own idea of the power of the letters. The +Welsh and the Irish are cultivated tongues. The Welsh, two hundred +years ago, insulted their English neighbours for the instability of +their Orthography; while the Earse merely floated in the breath of the +people, and could therefore receive little improvement.</p> +<p>When a language begins to teem with books, it is tending to refinement; +as those who undertake to teach others must have undergone some labour +in improving themselves, they set a proportionate value on their own +thoughts, and wish to enforce them by efficacious expressions; speech +becomes embodied and permanent; different modes and phrases are compared, +and the best obtains an establishment. By degrees one age improves +upon another. Exactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance. +But diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man +leaves his eloquence behind him, the new generations have all to learn. +There may possibly be books without a polished language, but there can +be no polished language without books.</p> +<p>That the Bards could not read more than the rest of their countrymen, +it is reasonable to suppose; because, if they had read, they could probably +have written; and how high their compositions may reasonably be rated, +an inquirer may best judge by considering what stores of imagery, what +principles of ratiocination, what comprehension of knowledge, and what +delicacy of elocution he has known any man attain who cannot read. +The state of the Bards was yet more hopeless. He that cannot read, +may now converse with those that can; but the Bard was a barbarian among +barbarians, who, knowing nothing himself, lived with others that knew +no more.</p> +<p>There has lately been in the Islands one of these illiterate poets, +who hearing the Bible read at church, is said to have turned the sacred +history into verse. I heard part of a dialogue, composed by him, +translated by a young lady in Mull, and thought it had more meaning +than I expected from a man totally uneducated; but he had some opportunities +of knowledge; he lived among a learned people. After all that +has been done for the instruction of the Highlanders, the antipathy +between their language and literature still continues; and no man that +has learned only Earse is, at this time, able to read.</p> +<p>The Earse has many dialects, and the words used in some Islands are +not always known in others. In literate nations, though the pronunciation, +and sometimes the words of common speech may differ, as now in England, +compared with the South of Scotland, yet there is a written diction, +which pervades all dialects, and is understood in every province. +But where the whole language is colloquial, he that has only one part, +never gets the rest, as he cannot get it but by change of residence.</p> +<p>In an unwritten speech, nothing that is not very short is transmitted +from one generation to another. Few have opportunities of hearing +a long composition often enough to learn it, or have inclination to +repeat it so often as is necessary to retain it; and what is once forgotten +is lost for ever. I believe there cannot be recovered, in the +whole Earse language, five hundred lines of which there is any evidence +to prove them a hundred years old. Yet I hear that the father +of Ossian boasts of two chests more of ancient poetry, which he suppresses, +because they are too good for the English.</p> +<p>He that goes into the Highlands with a mind naturally acquiescent, +and a credulity eager for wonders, may come back with an opinion very +different from mine; for the inhabitants knowing the ignorance of all +strangers in their language and antiquities, perhaps are not very scrupulous +adherents to truth; yet I do not say that they deliberately speak studied +falsehood, or have a settled purpose to deceive. They have inquired +and considered little, and do not always feel their own ignorance. +They are not much accustomed to be interrogated by others; and seem +never to have thought upon interrogating themselves; so that if they +do not know what they tell to be true, they likewise do not distinctly +perceive it to be false.</p> +<p>Mr. Boswell was very diligent in his inquiries; and the result of +his investigations was, that the answer to the second question was commonly +such as nullified the answer to the first.</p> +<p>We were a while told, that they had an old translation of the scriptures; +and told it till it would appear obstinacy to inquire again. Yet +by continued accumulation of questions we found, that the translation +meant, if any meaning there were, was nothing else than the Irish Bible.</p> +<p>We heard of manuscripts that were, or that had been in the hands +of somebody’s father, or grandfather; but at last we had no reason +to believe they were other than Irish. Martin mentions Irish, +but never any Earse manuscripts, to be found in the Islands in his time.</p> +<p>I suppose my opinion of the poems of Ossian is already discovered. +I believe they never existed in any other form than that which we have +seen. The editor, or author, never could shew the original; nor +can it be shewn by any other; to revenge reasonable incredulity, by +refusing evidence, is a degree of insolence, with which the world is +not yet acquainted; and stubborn audacity is the last refuge of guilt. +It would be easy to shew it if he had it; but whence could it be had? +It is too long to be remembered, and the language formerly had nothing +written. He has doubtless inserted names that circulate in popular +stories, and may have translated some wandering ballads, if any can +be found; and the names, and some of the images being recollected, make +an inaccurate auditor imagine, by the help of Caledonian bigotry, that +he has formerly heard the whole.</p> +<p>I asked a very learned Minister in Sky, who had used all arts to +make me believe the genuineness of the book, whether at last he believed +it himself? but he would not answer. He wished me to be deceived, +for the honour of his country; but would not directly and formally deceive +me. Yet has this man’s testimony been publickly produced, +as of one that held Fingal to be the work of Ossian.</p> +<p>It is said, that some men of integrity profess to have heard parts +of it, but they all heard them when they were boys; and it was never +said that any of them could recite six lines. They remember names, +and perhaps some proverbial sentiments; and, having no distinct ideas, +coin a resemblance without an original. The persuasion of the +Scots, however, is far from universal; and in a question so capable +of proof, why should doubt be suffered to continue? The editor +has been heard to say, that part of the poem was received by him, in +the Saxon character. He has then found, by some peculiar fortune, +an unwritten language, written in a character which the natives probably +never beheld.</p> +<p>I have yet supposed no imposture but in the publisher, yet I am far +from certainty, that some translations have not been lately made, that +may now be obtruded as parts of the original work. Credulity on +one part is a strong temptation to deceit on the other, especially to +deceit of which no personal injury is the consequence, and which flatters +the author with his own ingenuity. The Scots have something to +plead for their easy reception of an improbable fiction; they are seduced +by their fondness for their supposed ancestors. A Scotchman must +be a very sturdy moralist, who does not love Scotland better than truth: +he will always love it better than inquiry; and if falsehood flatters +his vanity, will not be very diligent to detect it. Neither ought +the English to be much influenced by Scotch authority; for of the past +and present state of the whole Earse nation, the Lowlanders are at least +as ignorant as ourselves. To be ignorant is painful; but it is +dangerous to quiet our uneasiness by the delusive opiate of hasty persuasion.</p> +<p>But this is the age, in which those who could not read, have been +supposed to write; in which the giants of antiquated romance have been +exhibited as realities. If we know little of the ancient Highlanders, +let us not fill the vacuity with Ossian. If we had not searched +the Magellanick regions, let us however forbear to people them with +Patagons.</p> +<p>Having waited some days at Armidel, we were flattered at last with +a wind that promised to convey us to Mull. We went on board a +boat that was taking in kelp, and left the Isle of Sky behind us. +We were doomed to experience, like others, the danger of trusting to +the wind, which blew against us, in a short time, with such violence, +that we, being no seasoned sailors, were willing to call it a tempest. +I was sea-sick and lay down. Mr. Boswell kept the deck. +The master knew not well whither to go; and our difficulties might perhaps +have filled a very pathetick page, had not Mr. Maclean of Col, who, +with every other qualification which insular life requires, is a very +active and skilful mariner, piloted us safe into his own harbour.</p> +<h2>COL</h2> +<p>In the morning we found ourselves under the Isle of Col, where we +landed; and passed the first day and night with Captain Maclean, a gentleman +who has lived some time in the East Indies; but having dethroned no +Nabob, is not too rich to settle in own country.</p> +<p>Next day the wind was fair, and we might have had an easy passage +to Mull; but having, contrarily to our own intention, landed upon a +new Island, we would not leave it wholly unexamined. We therefore +suffered the vessel to depart without us, and trusted the skies for +another wind.</p> +<p>Mr. Maclean of Col, having a very numerous family, has, for some +time past, resided at Aberdeen, that he may superintend their education, +and leaves the young gentleman, our friend, to govern his dominions, +with the full power of a Highland Chief. By the absence of the +Laird’s family, our entertainment was made more difficult, because +the house was in a great degree disfurnished; but young Col’s +kindness and activity supplied all defects, and procured us more than +sufficient accommodation.</p> +<p>Here I first mounted a little Highland steed; and if there had been +many spectators, should have been somewhat ashamed of my figure in the +march. The horses of the Islands, as of other barren countries, +are very low: they are indeed musculous and strong, beyond what their +size gives reason for expecting; but a bulky man upon one of their backs +makes a very disproportionate appearance.</p> +<p>From the habitation of Captain Maclean, we went to Grissipol, but +called by the way on Mr. Hector Maclean, the Minister of Col, whom we +found in a hut, that is, a house of only one floor, but with windows +and chimney, and not inelegantly furnished. Mr. Maclean has the +reputation of great learning: he is seventy-seven years old, but not +infirm, with a look of venerable dignity, excelling what I remember +in any other man.</p> +<p>His conversation was not unsuitable to his appearance. I lost +some of his good-will, by treating a heretical writer with more regard +than, in his opinion, a heretick could deserve. I honoured his +orthodoxy, and did not much censure his asperity. A man who has +settled his opinions, does not love to have the tranquillity of his +conviction disturbed; and at seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.</p> +<p>Mention was made of the Earse translation of the New Testament, which +has been lately published, and of which the learned Mr. Macqueen of +Sky spoke with commendation; but Mr. Maclean said he did not use it, +because he could make the text more intelligible to his auditors by +an extemporary version. From this I inferred, that the language +of the translation was not the language of the Isle of Col.</p> +<p>He has no publick edifice for the exercise of his ministry; and can +officiate to no greater number, than a room can contain; and the room +of a hut is not very large. This is all the opportunity of worship +that is now granted to the inhabitants of the Island, some of whom must +travel thither perhaps ten miles. Two chapels were erected by +their ancestors, of which I saw the skeletons, which now stand faithful +witnesses of the triumph of the Reformation.</p> +<p>The want of churches is not the only impediment to piety: there is +likewise a want of Ministers. A parish often contains more Islands +than one; and each Island can have the Minister only in its own turn. +At Raasa they had, I think, a right to service only every third Sunday. +All the provision made by the present ecclesiastical constitution, for +the inhabitants of about a hundred square miles, is a prayer and sermon +in a little room, once in three weeks: and even this parsimonious distribution +is at the mercy of the weather; and in those Islands where the Minister +does not reside, it is impossible to tell how many weeks or months may +pass without any publick exercise of religion.</p> +<h2>GRISSIPOL IN COL</h2> +<p>After a short conversation with Mr. Maclean, we went on to Grissipol, +a house and farm tenanted by Mr. Macsweyn, where I saw more of the ancient +life of a Highlander, than I had yet found. Mrs. Macsweyn could +speak no English, and had never seen any other places than the Islands +of Sky, Mull, and Col: but she was hospitable and good-humoured, and +spread her table with sufficient liberality. We found tea here, +as in every other place, but our spoons were of horn.</p> +<p>The house of Grissipol stands by a brook very clear and quick; which +is, I suppose, one of the most copious streams in the Island. +This place was the scene of an action, much celebrated in the traditional +history of Col, but which probably no two relaters will tell alike.</p> +<p>Some time, in the obscure ages, Macneil of Barra married the Lady +Maclean, who had the Isle of Col for her jointure. Whether Macneil +detained Col, when the widow was dead, or whether she lived so long +as to make her heirs impatient, is perhaps not now known. The +younger son, called John Gerves, or John the Giant, a man of great strength +who was then in Ireland, either for safety, or for education, dreamed +of recovering his inheritance; and getting some adventurers together, +which, in those unsettled times, was not hard to do, invaded Col. +He was driven away, but was not discouraged, and collecting new followers, +in three years came again with fifty men. In his way he stopped +at Artorinish in Morvern, where his uncle was prisoner to Macleod, and +was then with his enemies in a tent. Maclean took with him only +one servant, whom he ordered to stay at the outside; and where he should +see the tent pressed outwards, to strike with his dirk, it being the +intention of Maclean, as any man provoked him, to lay hands upon him, +and push him back. He entered the tent alone, with his Lochabar-axe +in his hand, and struck such terror into the whole assembly, that they +dismissed his uncle.</p> +<p>When he landed at Col, he saw the sentinel, who kept watch towards +the sea, running off to Grissipol, to give Macneil, who was there with +a hundred and twenty men, an account of the invasion. He told +Macgill, one of his followers, that if he intercepted that dangerous +intelligence, by catching the courier, he would give him certain lands +in Mull. Upon this promise, Macgill pursued the messenger, and +either killed, or stopped him; and his posterity, till very lately, +held the lands in Mull.</p> +<p>The alarm being thus prevented, he came unexpectedly upon Macneil. +Chiefs were in those days never wholly unprovided for an enemy. +A fight ensued, in which one of their followers is said to have given +an extraordinary proof of activity, by bounding backwards over the brook +of Grissipol. Macneil being killed, and many of his clan destroyed, +Maclean took possession of the Island, which the Macneils attempted +to conquer by another invasion, but were defeated and repulsed.</p> +<p>Maclean, in his turn, invaded the estate of the Macneils, took the +castle of Brecacig, and conquered the Isle of Barra, which he held for +seven years, and then restored it to the heirs.</p> +<h2>CASTLE OF COL</h2> +<p>From Grissipol, Mr. Maclean conducted us to his father’s seat; +a neat new house, erected near the old castle, I think, by the last +proprietor. Here we were allowed to take our station, and lived +very commodiously, while we waited for moderate weather and a fair wind, +which we did not so soon obtain, but we had time to get some information +of the present state of Col, partly by inquiry, and partly by occasional +excursions.</p> +<p>Col is computed to be thirteen miles in length, and three in breadth. +Both the ends are the property of the Duke of Argyle, but the middle +belongs to Maclean, who is called Col, as the only Laird.</p> +<p>Col is not properly rocky; it is rather one continued rock, of a +surface much diversified with protuberances, and covered with a thin +layer of earth, which is often broken, and discovers the stone. +Such a soil is not for plants that strike deep roots; and perhaps in +the whole Island nothing has ever yet grown to the height of a table. +The uncultivated parts are clothed with heath, among which industry +has interspersed spots of grass and corn; but no attempt has yet been +made to raise a tree. Young Col, who has a very laudable desire +of improving his patrimony, purposes some time to plant an orchard; +which, if it be sheltered by a wall, may perhaps succeed. He has +introduced the culture of turnips, of which he has a field, where the +whole work was performed by his own hand. His intention is to +provide food for his cattle in the winter. This innovation was +considered by Mr. Macsweyn as the idle project of a young head, heated +with English fancies; but he has now found that turnips will really +grow, and that hungry sheep and cows will really eat them.</p> +<p>By such acquisitions as these, the Hebrides may in time rise above +their annual distress. Wherever heath will grow, there is reason +to think something better may draw nourishment; and by trying the production +of other places, plants will be found suitable to every soil.</p> +<p>Col has many lochs, some of which have trouts and eels, and others +have never yet been stocked; another proof of the negligence of the +Islanders, who might take fish in the inland waters, when they cannot +go to sea.</p> +<p>Their quadrupeds are horses, cows, sheep, and goats. They have +neither deer, hares, nor rabbits. They have no vermin, except +rats, which have been lately brought thither by sea, as to other places; +and are free from serpents, frogs, and toads.</p> +<p>The harvest in Col, and in Lewis, is ripe sooner than in Sky; and +the winter in Col is never cold, but very tempestuous. I know +not that I ever heard the wind so loud in any other place; and Mr. Boswell +observed, that its noise was all its own, for there were no trees to +increase it.</p> +<p>Noise is not the worst effect of the tempests; for they have thrown +the sand from the shore over a considerable part of the land; and it +is said still to encroach and destroy more and more pasture; but I am +not of opinion, that by any surveys or landmarks, its limits have been +ever fixed, or its progression ascertained. If one man has confidence +enough to say, that it advances, nobody can bring any proof to support +him in denying it. The reason why it is not spread to a greater +extent, seems to be, that the wind and rain come almost together, and +that it is made close and heavy by the wet before the storms can put +it in motion. So thick is the bed, and so small the particles, +that if a traveller should be caught by a sudden gust in dry weather, +he would find it very difficult to escape with life.</p> +<p>For natural curiosities, I was shown only two great masses of stone, +which lie loose upon the ground; one on the top of a hill, and the other +at a small distance from the bottom. They certainly were never +put into their present places by human strength or skill; and though +an earthquake might have broken off the lower stone, and rolled it into +the valley, no account can be given of the other, which lies on the +hill, unless, which I forgot to examine, there be still near it some +higher rock, from which it might be torn. All nations have a tradition, +that their earliest ancestors were giants, and these stones are said +to have been thrown up and down by a giant and his mistress. There +are so many more important things, of which human knowledge can give +no account, that it may be forgiven us, if we speculate no longer on +two stones in Col.</p> +<p>This Island is very populous. About nine-and-twenty years ago, +the fencible men of Col were reckoned one hundred and forty, which is +the sixth of eight hundred and forty; and probably some contrived to +be left out of the list. The Minister told us, that a few years +ago the inhabitants were eight hundred, between the ages of seven and +of seventy. Round numbers are seldom exact. But in this +case the authority is good, and the errour likely to be little. +If to the eight hundred be added what the laws of computation require, +they will be increased to at least a thousand; and if the dimensions +of the country have been accurately related, every mile maintains more +than twenty-five.</p> +<p>This proportion of habitation is greater than the appearance of the +country seems to admit; for wherever the eye wanders, it sees much waste +and little cultivation. I am more inclined to extend the land, +of which no measure has ever been taken, than to diminish the people, +who have been really numbered. Let it be supposed, that a computed +mile contains a mile and a half, as was commonly found true in the mensuration +of the English roads, and we shall then allot nearly twelve to a mile, +which agrees much better with ocular observation.</p> +<p>Here, as in Sky, and other Islands, are the Laird, the Tacksmen, +and the under tenants.</p> +<p>Mr. Maclean, the Laird, has very extensive possessions, being proprietor, +not only of far the greater part of Col, but of the extensive Island +of Rum, and a very considerable territory in Mull.</p> +<p>Rum is one of the larger Islands, almost square, and therefore of +great capacity in proportion to its sides. By the usual method +of estimating computed extent, it may contain more than a hundred and +twenty square miles.</p> +<p>It originally belonged to Clanronald, and was purchased by Col; who, +in some dispute about the bargain, made Clanronald prisoner, and kept +him nine months in confinement. Its owner represents it as mountainous, +rugged, and barren. In the hills there are red deer. The +horses are very small, but of a breed eminent for beauty. Col, +not long ago, bought one of them from a tenant; who told him, that as +he was of a shape uncommonly elegant, he could not sell him but at a +high price; and that whoever had him should pay a guinea and a half.</p> +<p>There are said to be in Barra a race of horses yet smaller, of which +the highest is not above thirty-six inches.</p> +<p>The rent of Rum is not great. Mr. Maclean declared, that he +should be very rich, if he could set his land at two-pence halfpenny +an acre. The inhabitants are fifty-eight families, who continued +Papists for some time after the Laird became a Protestant. Their +adherence to their old religion was strengthened by the countenance +of the Laird’s sister, a zealous Romanist, till one Sunday, as +they were going to mass under the conduct of their patroness, Maclean +met them on the way, gave one of them a blow on the head with a yellow +stick, I suppose a cane, for which the Earse had no name, and drove +them to the kirk, from which they have never since departed. Since +the use of this method of conversion, the inhabitants of Egg and Canna, +who continue Papists, call the Protestantism of Rum, the religion of +the Yellow Stick.</p> +<p>The only Popish Islands are Egg and Canna. Egg is the principal +Island of a parish, in which, though he has no congregation, the Protestant +Minister resides. I have heard of nothing curious in it, but the +cave in which a former generation of the Islanders were smothered by +Macleod.</p> +<p>If we had travelled with more leisure, it had not been fit to have +neglected the Popish Islands. Popery is favourable to ceremony; +and among ignorant nations, ceremony is the only preservative of tradition. +Since protestantism was extended to the savage parts of Scotland, it +has perhaps been one of the chief labours of the Ministers to abolish +stated observances, because they continued the remembrance of the former +religion. We therefore who came to hear old traditions, and see +antiquated manners, should probably have found them amongst the Papists.</p> +<p>Canna, the other Popish Island, belongs to Clanronald. It is +said not to comprise more than twelve miles of land, and yet maintains +as many inhabitants as Rum.</p> +<p>We were at Col under the protection of the young Laird, without any +of the distresses, which Mr. Pennant, in a fit of simple credulity, +seems to think almost worthy of an elegy by Ossian. Wherever we +roved, we were pleased to see the reverence with which his subjects +regarded him. He did not endeavour to dazzle them by any magnificence +of dress: his only distinction was a feather in his bonnet; but as soon +as he appeared, they forsook their work and clustered about him: he +took them by the hand, and they seemed mutually delighted. He +has the proper disposition of a Chieftain, and seems desirous to continue +the customs of his house. The bagpiper played regularly, when +dinner was served, whose person and dress made a good appearance; and +he brought no disgrace upon the family of Rankin, which has long supplied +the Lairds of Col with hereditary musick.</p> +<p>The Tacksmen of Col seem to live with less dignity and convenience +than those of Sky; where they had good houses, and tables not only plentiful, +but delicate. In Col only two houses pay the window tax; for only +two have six windows, which, I suppose, are the Laird’s and Mr. +Macsweyn’s.</p> +<p>The rents have, till within seven years, been paid in kind, but the +tenants finding that cattle and corn varied in their price, desired +for the future to give their landlord money; which, not having yet arrived +at the philosophy of commerce, they consider as being every year of +the same value.</p> +<p>We were told of a particular mode of under-tenure. The Tacksman +admits some of his inferior neighbours to the cultivation of his grounds, +on condition that performing all the work, and giving a third part of +the seed, they shall keep a certain number of cows, sheep, and goats, +and reap a third part of the harvest. Thus by less than the tillage +of two acres they pay the rent of one.</p> +<p>There are tenants below the rank of Tacksmen, that have got smaller +tenants under them; for in every place, where money is not the general +equivalent, there must be some whose labour is immediately paid by daily +food.</p> +<p>A country that has no money, is by no means convenient for beggars, +both because such countries are commonly poor, and because charity requires +some trouble and some thought. A penny is easily given upon the +first impulse of compassion, or impatience of importunity; but few will +deliberately search their cupboards or their granaries to find out something +to give. A penny is likewise easily spent, but victuals, if they +are unprepared, require houseroom, and fire, and utensils, which the +beggar knows not where to find.</p> +<p>Yet beggars there sometimes are, who wander from Island to Island. +We had, in our passage to Mull, the company of a woman and her child, +who had exhausted the charity of Col. The arrival of a beggar +on an Island is accounted a sinistrous event. Every body considers +that he shall have the less for what he gives away. Their alms, +I believe, is generally oatmeal.</p> +<p>Near to Col is another Island called Tireye, eminent for its fertility. +Though it has but half the extent of Rum, it is so well peopled, that +there have appeared, not long ago, nine hundred and fourteen at a funeral. +The plenty of this Island enticed beggars to it, who seemed so burdensome +to the inhabitants, that a formal compact was drawn up, by which they +obliged themselves to grant no more relief to casual wanderers, because +they had among them an indigent woman of high birth, whom they considered +as entitled to all that they could spare. I have read the stipulation, +which was indited with juridical formality, but was never made valid +by regular subscription.</p> +<p>If the inhabitants of Col have nothing to give, it is not that they +are oppressed by their landlord: their leases seem to be very profitable. +One farmer, who pays only seven pounds a year, has maintained seven +daughters and three sons, of whom the eldest is educated at Aberdeen +for the ministry; and now, at every vacation, opens a school in Col.</p> +<p>Life is here, in some respects, improved beyond the condition of +some other Islands. In Sky what is wanted can only be bought, +as the arrival of some wandering pedlar may afford an opportunity; but +in Col there is a standing shop, and in Mull there are two. A +shop in the Islands, as in other places of little frequentation, is +a repository of every thing requisite for common use. Mr. Boswell’s +journal was filled, and he bought some paper in Col. To a man +that ranges the streets of London, where he is tempted to contrive wants, +for the pleasure of supplying them, a shop affords no image worthy of +attention; but in an Island, it turns the balance of existence between +good and evil. To live in perpetual want of little things, is +a state not indeed of torture, but of constant vexation. I have +in Sky had some difficulty to find ink for a letter; and if a woman +breaks her needle, the work is at a stop.</p> +<p>As it is, the Islanders are obliged to content themselves with succedaneous +means for many common purposes. I have seen the chief man of a +very wide district riding with a halter for a bridle, and governing +his hobby with a wooden curb.</p> +<p>The people of Col, however, do not want dexterity to supply some +of their necessities. Several arts which make trades, and demand +apprenticeships in great cities, are here the practices of daily economy. +In every house candles are made, both moulded and dipped. Their +wicks are small shreds of linen cloth. They all know how to extract +from the Cuddy, oil for their lamps. They all tan skins, and make +brogues.</p> +<p>As we travelled through Sky, we saw many cottages, but they very +frequently stood single on the naked ground. In Col, where the +hills opened a place convenient for habitation, we found a petty village, +of which every hut had a little garden adjoining; thus they made an +appearance of social commerce and mutual offices, and of some attention +to convenience and future supply. There is not in the Western +Islands any collection of buildings that can make pretensions to be +called a town, except in the Isle of Lewis, which I have not seen.</p> +<p>If Lewis is distinguished by a town, Col has also something peculiar. +The young Laird has attempted what no Islander perhaps ever thought +on. He has begun a road capable of a wheel-carriage. He +has carried it about a mile, and will continue it by annual elongation +from his house to the harbour.</p> +<p>Of taxes here is no reason for complaining; they are paid by a very +easy composition. The malt-tax for Col is twenty shillings. +Whisky is very plentiful: there are several stills in the Island, and +more is made than the inhabitants consume.</p> +<p>The great business of insular policy is now to keep the people in +their own country. As the world has been let in upon them, they +have heard of happier climates, and less arbitrary government; and if +they are disgusted, have emissaries among them ready to offer them land +and houses, as a reward for deserting their Chief and clan. Many +have departed both from the main of Scotland, and from the Islands; +and all that go may be considered as subjects lost to the British crown; +for a nation scattered in the boundless regions of America resembles +rays diverging from a focus. All the rays remain, but the heat +is gone. Their power consisted in their concentration: when they +are dispersed, they have no effect.</p> +<p>It may be thought that they are happier by the change; but they are +not happy as a nation, for they are a nation no longer. As they +contribute not to the prosperity of any community, they must want that +security, that dignity, that happiness, whatever it be, which a prosperous +community throws back upon individuals.</p> +<p>The inhabitants of Col have not yet learned to be weary of their +heath and rocks, but attend their agriculture and their dairies, without +listening to American seducements.</p> +<p>There are some however who think that this emigration has raised +terrour disproportionate to its real evil; and that it is only a new +mode of doing what was always done. The Highlands, they say, never +maintained their natural inhabitants; but the people, when they found +themselves too numerous, instead of extending cultivation, provided +for themselves by a more compendious method, and sought better fortune +in other countries. They did not indeed go away in collective +bodies, but withdrew invisibly, a few at a time; but the whole number +of fugitives was not less, and the difference between other times and +this, is only the same as between evaporation and effusion.</p> +<p>This is plausible, but I am afraid it is not true. Those who +went before, if they were not sensibly missed, as the argument supposes, +must have gone either in less number, or in a manner less detrimental, +than at present; because formerly there was no complaint. Those +who then left the country were generally the idle dependants on overburdened +families, or men who had no property; and therefore carried away only +themselves. In the present eagerness of emigration, families, +and almost communities, go away together. Those who were considered +as prosperous and wealthy sell their stock and carry away the money. +Once none went away but the useless and poor; in some parts there is +now reason to fear, that none will stay but those who are too poor to +remove themselves, and too useless to be removed at the cost of others.</p> +<p>Of antiquity there is not more knowledge in Col than in other places; +but every where something may be gleaned.</p> +<p>How ladies were portioned, when there was no money, it would be difficult +for an Englishman to guess. In 1649, Maclean of Dronart in Mull +married his sister Fingala to Maclean of Coll, with a hundred and eighty +kine; and stipulated, that if she became a widow, her jointure should +be three hundred and sixty. I suppose some proportionate tract +of land was appropriated to their pasturage.</p> +<p>The disposition to pompous and expensive funerals, which has at one +time or other prevailed in most parts of the civilized world, is not +yet suppressed in the Islands, though some of the ancient solemnities +are worn away, and singers are no longer hired to attend the procession. +Nineteen years ago, at the burial of the Laird of Col, were killed thirty +cows, and about fifty sheep. The number of the cows is positively +told, and we must suppose other victuals in like proportion.</p> +<p>Mr. Maclean informed us of an odd game, of which he did not tell +the original, but which may perhaps be used in other places, where the +reason of it is not yet forgot. At New-year’s eve, in the +hall or castle of the Laird, where, at festal seasons, there may be +supposed a very numerous company, one man dresses himself in a cow’s +hide, upon which other men beat with sticks. He runs with all +this noise round the house, which all the company quits in a counterfeited +fright: the door is then shut. At New-year’s eve there is +no great pleasure to be had out of doors in the Hebrides. They +are sure soon to recover from their terrour enough to solicit for re-admission; +which, for the honour of poetry, is not to be obtained but by repeating +a verse, with which those that are knowing and provident take care to +be furnished.</p> +<p>Very near the house of Maclean stands the castle of Col, which was +the mansion of the Laird, till the house was built. It is built +upon a rock, as Mr. Boswell remarked, that it might not be mined. +It is very strong, and having been not long uninhabited, is yet in repair. +On the wall was, not long ago, a stone with an inscription, importing, +that ‘if any man of the clan of Maclonich shall appear before +this castle, though he come at midnight, with a man’s head in +his hand, he shall there find safety and protection against all but +the King.’</p> +<p>This is an old Highland treaty made upon a very memorable occasion. +Maclean, the son of John Gerves, who recovered Col, and conquered Barra, +had obtained, it is said, from James the Second, a grant of the lands +of Lochiel, forfeited, I suppose, by some offence against the state.</p> +<p>Forfeited estates were not in those days quietly resigned; Maclean, +therefore, went with an armed force to seize his new possessions, and, +I know not for what reason, took his wife with him. The Camerons +rose in defence of their Chief, and a battle was fought at the head +of Loch Ness, near the place where Fort Augustus now stands, in which +Lochiel obtained the victory, and Maclean, with his followers, was defeated +and destroyed.</p> +<p>The lady fell into the hands of the conquerours, and being found +pregnant was placed in the custody of Maclonich, one of a tribe or family +branched from Cameron, with orders, if she brought a boy, to destroy +him, if a girl, to spare her.</p> +<p>Maclonich’s wife, who was with child likewise, had a girl about +the same time at which lady Maclean brought a boy, and Maclonich with +more generosity to his captive, than fidelity to his trust, contrived +that the children should be changed.</p> +<p>Maclean being thus preserved from death, in time recovered his original +patrimony; and in gratitude to his friend, made his castle a place of +refuge to any of the clan that should think himself in danger; and, +as a proof of reciprocal confidence, Maclean took upon himself and his +posterity the care of educating the heir of Maclonich.</p> +<p>This story, like all other traditions of the Highlands, is variously +related, but though some circumstances are uncertain, the principal +fact is true. Maclean undoubtedly owed his preservation to Maclonich; +for the treaty between the two families has been strictly observed: +it did not sink into disuse and oblivion, but continued in its full +force while the chieftains retained their power. I have read a +demand of protection, made not more than thirty-seven years ago, for +one of the Maclonichs, named Ewen Cameron, who had been accessory to +the death of Macmartin, and had been banished by Lochiel, his lord, +for a certain term; at the expiration of which he returned married from +France, but the Macmartins, not satisfied with the punishment, when +he attempted to settle, still threatened him with vengeance. He +therefore asked, and obtained shelter in the Isle of Col.</p> +<p>The power of protection subsists no longer, but what the law permits +is yet continued, and Maclean of Col now educates the heir of Maclonich.</p> +<p>There still remains in the Islands, though it is passing fast away, +the custom of fosterage. A Laird, a man of wealth and eminence, +sends his child, either male or female, to a tacksman, or tenant, to +be fostered. It is not always his own tenant, but some distant +friend that obtains this honour; for an honour such a trust is very +reasonably thought. The terms of fosterage seem to vary in different +islands. In Mull, the father sends with his child a certain number +of cows, to which the same number is added by the fosterer. The +father appropriates a proportionable extent of ground, without rent, +for their pasturage. If every cow brings a calf, half belongs +to the fosterer, and half to the child; but if there be only one calf +between two cows, it is the child’s, and when the child returns +to the parent, it is accompanied by all the cows given, both by the +father and by the fosterer, with half of the increase of the stock by +propagation. These beasts are considered as a portion, and called +Macalive cattle, of which the father has the produce, but is supposed +not to have the full property, but to owe the same number to the child, +as a portion to the daughter, or a stock for the son.</p> +<p>Children continue with the fosterer perhaps six years, and cannot, +where this is the practice, be considered as burdensome. The fosterer, +if he gives four cows, receives likewise four, and has, while the child +continues with him, grass for eight without rent, with half the calves, +and all the milk, for which he pays only four cows when he dismisses +his Dalt, for that is the name for a foster child.</p> +<p>Fosterage is, I believe, sometimes performed upon more liberal terms. +Our friend, the young Laird of Col, was fostered by Macsweyn of Grissipol. +Macsweyn then lived a tenant to Sir James Macdonald in the Isle of Sky; +and therefore Col, whether he sent him cattle or not, could grant him +no land. The Dalt, however, at his return, brought back a considerable +number of Macalive cattle, and of the friendship so formed there have +been good effects. When Macdonald raised his rents, Macsweyn was, +like other tenants, discontented, and, resigning his farm, removed from +Sky to Col, and was established at Grissipol.</p> +<p>These observations we made by favour of the contrary wind that drove +us to Col, an Island not often visited; for there is not much to amuse +curiosity, or to attract avarice.</p> +<p>The ground has been hitherto, I believe, used chiefly for pasturage. +In a district, such as the eye can command, there is a general herdsman, +who knows all the cattle of the neighbourhood, and whose station is +upon a hill, from which he surveys the lower grounds; and if one man’s +cattle invade another’s grass, drives them back to their own borders. +But other means of profit begin to be found; kelp is gathered and burnt, +and sloops are loaded with the concreted ashes. Cultivation is +likely to be improved by the skill and encouragement of the present +heir, and the inhabitants of those obscure vallies will partake of the +general progress of life.</p> +<p>The rents of the parts which belong to the Duke of Argyle, have been +raised from fifty-five to one hundred and five pounds, whether from +the land or the sea I cannot tell. The bounties of the sea have +lately been so great, that a farm in Southuist has risen in ten years +from a rent of thirty pounds to one hundred and eighty.</p> +<p>He who lives in Col, and finds himself condemned to solitary meals, +and incommunicable reflection, will find the usefulness of that middle +order of Tacksmen, which some who applaud their own wisdom are wishing +to destroy. Without intelligence man is not social, he is only +gregarious; and little intelligence will there be, where all are constrained +to daily labour, and every mind must wait upon the hand.</p> +<p>After having listened for some days to the tempest, and wandered +about the Island till our curiosity was satisfied, we began to think +about our departure. To leave Col in October was not very easy. +We however found a sloop which lay on the coast to carry kelp; and for +a price which we thought levied upon our necessities, the master agreed +to carry us to Mull, whence we might readily pass back to Scotland.</p> +<h2>MULL</h2> +<p>As we were to catch the first favourable breath, we spent the night +not very elegantly nor pleasantly in the vessel, and were landed next +day at Tobor Morar, a port in Mull, which appears to an unexperienced +eye formed for the security of ships; for its mouth is closed by a small +island, which admits them through narrow channels into a bason sufficiently +capacious. They are indeed safe from the sea, but there is a hollow +between the mountains, through which the wind issues from the land with +very mischievous violence.</p> +<p>There was no danger while we were there, and we found several other +vessels at anchor; so that the port had a very commercial appearance.</p> +<p>The young Laird of Col, who had determined not to let us lose his +company, while there was any difficulty remaining, came over with us. +His influence soon appeared; for he procured us horses, and conducted +us to the house of Doctor Maclean, where we found very kind entertainment, +and very pleasing conversation. Miss Maclean, who was born, and +had been bred at Glasgow, having removed with her father to Mull, added +to other qualifications, a great knowledge of the Earse language, which +she had not learned in her childhood, but gained by study, and was the +only interpreter of Earse poetry that I could ever find.</p> +<p>The Isle of Mull is perhaps in extent the third of the Hebrides. +It is not broken by waters, nor shot into promontories, but is a solid +and compact mass, of breadth nearly equal to its length. Of the +dimensions of the larger Islands, there is no knowledge approaching +to exactness. I am willing to estimate it as containing about +three hundred square miles.</p> +<p>Mull had suffered like Sky by the black winter of seventy-one, in +which, contrary to all experience, a continued frost detained the snow +eight weeks upon the ground. Against a calamity never known, no +provision had been made, and the people could only pine in helpless +misery. One tenant was mentioned, whose cattle perished to the +value of three hundred pounds; a loss which probably more than the life +of man is necessary to repair. In countries like these, the descriptions +of famine become intelligible. Where by vigorous and artful cultivation +of a soil naturally fertile, there is commonly a superfluous growth +both of grain and grass; where the fields are crowded with cattle; and +where every hand is able to attract wealth from a distance, by making +something that promotes ease, or gratifies vanity, a dear year produces +only a comparative want, which is rather seen than felt, and which terminates +commonly in no worse effect, than that of condemning the lower orders +of the community to sacrifice a little luxury to convenience, or at +most a little convenience to necessity.</p> +<p>But where the climate is unkind, and the ground penurious, so that +the most fruitful years will produce only enough to maintain themselves; +where life unimproved, and unadorned, fades into something little more +than naked existence, and every one is busy for himself, without any +arts by which the pleasure of others may be increased; if to the daily +burden of distress any additional weight be added, nothing remains but +to despair and die. In Mull the disappointment of a harvest, or +a murrain among the cattle, cuts off the regular provision; and they +who have no manufactures can purchase no part of the superfluities of +other countries. The consequence of a bad season is here not scarcity, +but emptiness; and they whose plenty, was barely a supply of natural +and present need, when that slender stock fails, must perish with hunger.</p> +<p>All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better +countries, he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune carries him +to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.</p> +<p>Mr. Boswell’s curiosity strongly impelled him to survey Iona, +or Icolmkil, which was to the early ages the great school of Theology, +and is supposed to have been the place of sepulture for the ancient +kings. I, though less eager, did not oppose him.</p> +<p>That we might perform this expedition, it was necessary to traverse +a great part of Mull. We passed a day at Dr. Maclean’s, +and could have been well contented to stay longer. But Col provided +us horses, and we pursued our journey. This was a day of inconvenience, +for the country is very rough, and my horse was but little. We +travelled many hours through a tract, black and barren, in which, however, +there were the reliques of humanity; for we found a ruined chapel in +our way.</p> +<p>It is natural, in traversing this gloom of desolation, to inquire, +whether something may not be done to give nature a more cheerful face, +and whether those hills and moors that afford heath cannot with a little +care and labour bear something better? The first thought that +occurs is to cover them with trees, for that in many of these naked +regions trees will grow, is evident, because stumps and roots are yet +remaining; and the speculatist hastily proceeds to censure that negligence +and laziness that has omitted for so long a time so easy an improvement.</p> +<p>To drop seeds into the ground, and attend their growth, requires +little labour and no skill. He who remembers that all the woods, +by which the wants of man have been supplied from the Deluge till now, +were self-sown, will not easily be persuaded to think all the art and +preparation necessary, which the Georgick writers prescribe to planters. +Trees certainly have covered the earth with very little culture. +They wave their tops among the rocks of Norway, and might thrive as +well in the Highlands and Hebrides.</p> +<p>But there is a frightful interval between the seed and timber. +He that calculates the growth of trees, has the unwelcome remembrance +of the shortness of life driven hard upon him. He knows that he +is doing what will never benefit himself; and when he rejoices to see +the stem rise, is disposed to repine that another shall cut it down.</p> +<p>Plantation is naturally the employment of a mind unburdened with +care, and vacant to futurity, saturated with present good, and at leisure +to derive gratification from the prospect of posterity. He that +pines with hunger, is in little care how others shall be fed. +The poor man is seldom studious to make his grandson rich. It +may be soon discovered, why in a place, which hardly supplies the cravings +of necessity, there has been little attention to the delights of fancy, +and why distant convenience is unregarded, where the thoughts are turned +with incessant solicitude upon every possibility of immediate advantage.</p> +<p>Neither is it quite so easy to raise large woods, as may be conceived. +Trees intended to produce timber must be sown where they are to grow; +and ground sown with trees must be kept useless for a long time, inclosed +at an expence from which many will be discouraged by the remoteness +of the profit, and watched with that attention, which, in places where +it is most needed, will neither be given nor bought. That it cannot +be plowed is evident; and if cattle be suffered to graze upon it, they +will devour the plants as fast as they rise. Even in coarser countries, +where herds and flocks are not fed, not only the deer and the wild goats +will browse upon them, but the hare and rabbit will nibble them. +It is therefore reasonable to believe, what I do not remember any naturalist +to have remarked, that there was a time when the world was very thinly +inhabited by beasts, as well as men, and that the woods had leisure +to rise high before animals had bred numbers sufficient to intercept +them.</p> +<p>Sir James Macdonald, in part of the wastes of his territory, set +or sowed trees, to the number, as I have been told, of several millions, +expecting, doubtless, that they would grow up into future navies and +cities; but for want of inclosure, and of that care which is always +necessary, and will hardly ever be taken, all his cost and labour have +been lost, and the ground is likely to continue an useless heath.</p> +<p>Having not any experience of a journey in Mull, we had no doubt of +reaching the sea by day-light, and therefore had not left Dr. Maclean’s +very early. We travelled diligently enough, but found the country, +for road there was none, very difficult to pass. We were always +struggling with some obstruction or other, and our vexation was not +balanced by any gratification of the eye or mind. We were now +long enough acquainted with hills and heath to have lost the emotion +that they once raised, whether pleasing or painful, and had our mind +employed only on our own fatigue. We were however sure, under +Col’s protection, of escaping all real evils. There was +no house in Mull to which he could not introduce us. He had intended +to lodge us, for that night, with a gentleman that lived upon the coast, +but discovered on the way, that he then lay in bed without hope of life.</p> +<p>We resolved not to embarrass a family, in a time of so much sorrow, +if any other expedient could he found; and as the Island of Ulva was +over-against us, it was determined that we should pass the strait and +have recourse to the Laird, who, like the other gentlemen of the Islands, +was known to Col. We expected to find a ferry-boat, but when at +last we came to the water, the boat was gone.</p> +<p>We were now again at a stop. It was the sixteenth of October, +a time when it is not convenient to sleep in the Hebrides without a +cover, and there was no house within our reach, but that which we had +already declined.</p> +<h2>ULVA</h2> +<p>While we stood deliberating, we were happily espied from an Irish +ship, that lay at anchor in the strait. The master saw that we +wanted a passage, and with great civility sent us his boat, which quickly +conveyed us to Ulva, where we were very liberally entertained by Mr. +Macquarry.</p> +<p>To Ulva we came in the dark, and left it before noon the next day. +A very exact description therefore will not be expected. We were +told, that it is an Island of no great extent, rough and barren, inhabited +by the Macquarrys; a clan not powerful nor numerous, but of antiquity, +which most other families are content to reverence. The name is +supposed to be a depravation of some other; for the Earse language does +not afford it any etymology. Macquarry is proprietor both of Ulva +and some adjacent Islands, among which is Staffa, so lately raised to +renown by Mr. Banks.</p> +<p>When the Islanders were reproached with their ignorance, or insensibility +of the wonders of Staffa, they had not much to reply. They had +indeed considered it little, because they had always seen it; and none +but philosophers, nor they always, are struck with wonder, otherwise +than by novelty. How would it surprise an unenlightened ploughman, +to hear a company of sober men, inquiring by what power the hand tosses +a stone, or why the stone, when it is tossed, falls to the ground!</p> +<p>Of the ancestors of Macquarry, who thus lies hid in his unfrequented +Island, I have found memorials in all places where they could be expected.</p> +<p>Inquiring after the reliques of former manners, I found that in Ulva, +and, I think, no where else, is continued the payment of the Mercheta +Mulierum; a fine in old times due to the Laird at the marriage of a +virgin. The original of this claim, as of our tenure of Borough +English, is variously delivered. It is pleasant to find ancient +customs in old families. This payment, like others, was, for want +of money, made anciently in the produce of the land. Macquarry +was used to demand a sheep, for which he now takes a crown, by that +inattention to the uncertain proportion between the value and the denomination +of money, which has brought much disorder into Europe. A sheep +has always the same power of supplying human wants, but a crown will +bring at one time more, at another less.</p> +<p>Ulva was not neglected by the piety of ardent times: it has still +to show what was once a church.</p> +<h2>INCH KENNETH</h2> +<p>In the morning we went again into the boat, and were landed on Inch +Kenneth, an Island about a mile long, and perhaps half a mile broad, +remarkable for pleasantness and fertility. It is verdant and grassy, +and fit both for pasture and tillage; but it has no trees. Its +only inhabitants were Sir Allan Maclean and two young ladies, his daughters, +with their servants.</p> +<p>Romance does not often exhibit a scene that strikes the imagination +more than this little desert in these depths of Western obscurity, occupied +not by a gross herdsman, or amphibious fisherman, but by a gentleman +and two ladies, of high birth, polished manners and elegant conversation, +who, in a habitation raised not very far above the ground, but furnished +with unexpected neatness and convenience, practised all the kindness +of hospitality, and refinement of courtesy.</p> +<p>Sir Allan is the Chieftain of the great clan of Maclean, which is +said to claim the second place among the Highland families, yielding +only to Macdonald. Though by the misconduct of his ancestors, +most of the extensive territory, which would have descended to him, +has been alienated, he still retains much of the dignity and authority +of his birth. When soldiers were lately wanting for the American +war, application was made to Sir Allan, and he nominated a hundred men +for the service, who obeyed the summons, and bore arms under his command.</p> +<p>He had then, for some time, resided with the young ladies in Inch +Kenneth, where he lives not only with plenty, but with elegance, having +conveyed to his cottage a collection of books, and what else is necessary +to make his hours pleasant.</p> +<p>When we landed, we were met by Sir Allan and the Ladies, accompanied +by Miss Macquarry, who had passed some time with them, and now returned +to Ulva with her father.</p> +<p>We all walked together to the mansion, where we found one cottage +for Sir Allan, and I think two more for the domesticks and the offices. +We entered, and wanted little that palaces afford. Our room was +neatly floored, and well lighted; and our dinner, which was dressed +in one of the other huts, was plentiful and delicate.</p> +<p>In the afternoon Sir Allan reminded us, that the day was Sunday, +which he never suffered to pass without some religious distinction, +and invited us to partake in his acts of domestick worship; which I +hope neither Mr. Boswell nor myself will be suspected of a disposition +to refuse. The elder of the Ladies read the English service.</p> +<p>Inch Kenneth was once a seminary of ecclesiasticks, subordinate, +I suppose, to Icolmkill. Sir Allan had a mind to trace the foundations +of the college, but neither I nor Mr. Boswell, who bends a keener eye +on vacancy, were able to perceive them.</p> +<p>Our attention, however, was sufficiently engaged by a venerable chapel, +which stands yet entire, except that the roof is gone. It is about +sixty feet in length, and thirty in breadth. On one side of the +altar is a bas relief of the blessed Virgin, and by it lies a little +bell; which, though cracked, and without a clapper, has remained there +for ages, guarded only by the venerableness of the place. The +ground round the chapel is covered with gravestones of Chiefs and ladies; +and still continues to be a place of sepulture.</p> +<p>Inch Kenneth is a proper prelude to Icolmkill. It was not without +some mournful emotion that we contemplated the ruins of religious structures +and the monuments of the dead.</p> +<p>On the next day we took a more distinct view of the place, and went +with the boat to see oysters in the bed, out of which the boatmen forced +up as many as were wanted. Even Inch Kenneth has a subordinate +Island, named Sandiland, I suppose in contempt, where we landed, and +found a rock, with a surface of perhaps four acres, of which one is +naked stone, another spread with sand and shells, some of which I picked +up for their glossy beauty, and two covered with a little earth and +grass, on which Sir Allan has a few sheep. I doubt not but when +there was a college at Inch Kenneth, there was a hermitage upon Sandiland.</p> +<p>Having wandered over those extensive plains, we committed ourselves +again to the winds and waters; and after a voyage of about ten minutes, +in which we met with nothing very observable, were again safe upon dry +ground.</p> +<p>We told Sir Allan our desire of visiting Icolmkill, and entreated +him to give us his protection, and his company. He thought proper +to hesitate a little, but the Ladies hinted, that as they knew he would +not finally refuse, he would do better if he preserved the grace of +ready compliance. He took their advice, and promised to carry +us on the morrow in his boat.</p> +<p>We passed the remaining part of the day in such amusements as were +in our power. Sir Allan related the American campaign, and at +evening one of the Ladies played on her harpsichord, while Col and Mr. +Boswell danced a Scottish reel with the other.</p> +<p>We could have been easily persuaded to a longer stay upon Inch Kenneth, +but life will not be all passed in delight. The session at Edinburgh +was approaching, from which Mr. Boswell could not be absent.</p> +<p>In the morning our boat was ready: it was high and strong. +Sir Allan victualled it for the day, and provided able rowers. +We now parted from the young Laird of Col, who had treated us with so +much kindness, and concluded his favours by consigning us to Sir Allan. +Here we had the last embrace of this amiable man, who, while these pages +were preparing to attest his virtues, perished in the passage between +Ulva and Inch Kenneth.</p> +<p>Sir Allan, to whom the whole region was well known, told us of a +very remarkable cave, to which he would show us the way. We had +been disappointed already by one cave, and were not much elevated by +the expectation of another.</p> +<p>It was yet better to see it, and we stopped at some rocks on the +coast of Mull. The mouth is fortified by vast fragments of stone, +over which we made our way, neither very nimbly, nor very securely. +The place, however, well repaid our trouble. The bottom, as far +as the flood rushes in, was encumbered with large pebbles, but as we +advanced was spread over with smooth sand. The breadth is about +forty-five feet: the roof rises in an arch, almost regular, to a height +which we could not measure; but I think it about thirty feet.</p> +<p>This part of our curiosity was nearly frustrated; for though we went +to see a cave, and knew that caves are dark, we forgot to carry tapers, +and did not discover our omission till we were wakened by our wants. +Sir Allan then sent one of the boatmen into the country, who soon returned +with one little candle. We were thus enabled to go forward, but +could not venture far. Having passed inward from the sea to a +great depth, we found on the right hand a narrow passage, perhaps not +more than six feet wide, obstructed by great stones, over which we climbed +and came into a second cave, in breadth twenty-five feet. The +air in this apartment was very warm, but not oppressive, nor loaded +with vapours. Our light showed no tokens of a feculent or corrupted +atmosphere. Here was a square stone, called, as we are told, Fingal’s +Table.</p> +<p>If we had been provided with torches, we should have proceeded in +our search, though we had already gone as far as any former adventurer, +except some who are reported never to have returned; and, measuring +our way back, we found it more than a hundred and sixty yards, the eleventh +part of a mile.</p> +<p>Our measures were not critically exact, having been made with a walking +pole, such as it is convenient to carry in these rocky countries, of +which I guessed the length by standing against it. In this there +could be no great errour, nor do I much doubt but the Highlander, whom +we employed, reported the number right. More nicety however is +better, and no man should travel unprovided with instruments for taking +heights and distances.</p> +<p>There is yet another cause of errour not always easily surmounted, +though more dangerous to the veracity of itinerary narratives, than +imperfect mensuration. An observer deeply impressed by any remarkable +spectacle, does not suppose, that the traces will soon vanish from his +mind, and having commonly no great convenience for writing, defers the +description to a time of more leisure, and better accommodation.</p> +<p>He who has not made the experiment, or who is not accustomed to require +rigorous accuracy from himself, will scarcely believe how much a few +hours take from certainty of knowledge, and distinctness of imagery; +how the succession of objects will be broken, how separate parts will +be confused, and how many particular features and discriminations will +be compressed and conglobated into one gross and general idea.</p> +<p>To this dilatory notation must be imputed the false relations of +travellers, where there is no imaginable motive to deceive. They +trusted to memory, what cannot be trusted safely but to the eye, and +told by guess what a few hours before they had known with certainty. +Thus it was that Wheeler and Spon described with irreconcilable contrariety +things which they surveyed together, and which both undoubtedly designed +to show as they saw them.</p> +<p>When we had satisfied our curiosity in the cave, so far as our penury +of light permitted us, we clambered again to our boat, and proceeded +along the coast of Mull to a headland, called Atun, remarkable for the +columnar form of the rocks, which rise in a series of pilasters, with +a degree of regularity, which Sir Allan thinks not less worthy of curiosity +than the shore of Staffa.</p> +<p>Not long after we came to another range of black rocks, which had +the appearance of broken pilasters, set one behind another to a great +depth. This place was chosen by Sir Allan for our dinner. +We were easily accommodated with seats, for the stones were of all heights, +and refreshed ourselves and our boatmen, who could have no other rest +till we were at Icolmkill.</p> +<p>The evening was now approaching, and we were yet at a considerable +distance from the end of our expedition. We could therefore stop +no more to make remarks in the way, but set forward with some degree +of eagerness. The day soon failed us, and the moon presented a +very solemn and pleasing scene. The sky was clear, so that the +eye commanded a wide circle: the sea was neither still nor turbulent: +the wind neither silent nor loud. We were never far from one coast +or another, on which, if the weather had become violent, we could have +found shelter, and therefore contemplated at ease the region through +which we glided in the tranquillity of the night, and saw now a rock +and now an island grow gradually conspicuous and gradually obscure. +I committed the fault which I have just been censuring, in neglecting, +as we passed, to note the series of this placid navigation.</p> +<p>We were very near an Island, called Nun’s Island, perhaps from +an ancient convent. Here is said to have been dug the stone that +was used in the buildings of Icolmkill. Whether it is now inhabited +we could not stay to inquire.</p> +<p>At last we came to Icolmkill, but found no convenience for landing. +Our boat could not be forced very near the dry ground, and our Highlanders +carried us over the water.</p> +<p>We were now treading that illustrious Island, which was once the +luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians +derived the benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion. +To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if +it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were possible. +Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the +past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances +us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me and from my +friends, be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and +unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, +or virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would +not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not +grow warmer among the ruins of Iona!</p> +<p>We came too late to visit monuments: some care was necessary for +ourselves. Whatever was in the Island, Sir Allan could command, +for the inhabitants were Macleans; but having little they could not +give us much. He went to the headman of the Island, whom Fame, +but Fame delights in amplifying, represents as worth no less than fifty +pounds. He was perhaps proud enough of his guests, but ill prepared +for our entertainment; however, he soon produced more provision than +men not luxurious require. Our lodging was next to be provided. +We found a barn well stocked with hay, and made our beds as soft as +we could.</p> +<p>In the morning we rose and surveyed the place. The churches +of the two convents are both standing, though unroofed. They were +built of unhewn stone, but solid, and not inelegant. I brought +away rude measures of the buildings, such as I cannot much trust myself, +inaccurately taken, and obscurely noted. Mr. Pennant’s delineations, +which are doubtless exact, have made my unskilful description less necessary.</p> +<p>The episcopal church consists of two parts, separated by the belfry, +and built at different times. The original church had, like others, +the altar at one end, and tower at the other: but as it grew too small, +another building of equal dimension was added, and the tower then was +necessarily in the middle.</p> +<p>That these edifices are of different ages seems evident. The +arch of the first church is Roman, being part of a circle; that of the +additional building is pointed, and therefore Gothick, or Saracenical; +the tower is firm, and wants only to be floored and covered.</p> +<p>Of the chambers or cells belonging to the monks, there are some walls +remaining, but nothing approaching to a complete apartment.</p> +<p>The bottom of the church is so incumbered with mud and rubbish, that +we could make no discoveries of curious inscriptions, and what there +are have been already published. The place is said to be known +where the black stones lie concealed, on which the old Highland Chiefs, +when they made contracts and alliances, used to take the oath, which +was considered as more sacred than any other obligation, and which could +not be violated without the blackest infamy. In those days of +violence and rapine, it was of great importance to impress upon savage +minds the sanctity of an oath, by some particular and extraordinary +circumstances. They would not have recourse to the black stones, +upon small or common occasions, and when they had established their +faith by this tremendous sanction, inconstancy and treachery were no +longer feared.</p> +<p>The chapel of the nunnery is now used by the inhabitants as a kind +of general cow-house, and the bottom is consequently too miry for examination. +Some of the stones which covered the later abbesses have inscriptions, +which might yet be read, if the chapel were cleansed. The roof +of this, as of all the other buildings, is totally destroyed, not only +because timber quickly decays when it is neglected, but because in an +island utterly destitute of wood, it was wanted for use, and was consequently +the first plunder of needy rapacity.</p> +<p>The chancel of the nuns’ chapel is covered with an arch of +stone, to which time has done no injury; and a small apartment communicating +with the choir, on the north side, like the chapter-house in cathedrals, +roofed with stone in the same manner, is likewise entire.</p> +<p>In one of the churches was a marble altar, which the superstition +of the inhabitants has destroyed. Their opinion was, that a fragment +of this stone was a defence against shipwrecks, fire, and miscarriages. +In one corner of the church the bason for holy water is yet unbroken.</p> +<p>The cemetery of the nunnery was, till very lately, regarded with +such reverence, that only women were buried in it. These reliques +of veneration always produce some mournful pleasure. I could have +forgiven a great injury more easily than the violation of this imaginary +sanctity.</p> +<p>South of the chapel stand the walls of a large room, which was probably +the hall, or refectory of the nunnery. This apartment is capable +of repair. Of the rest of the convent there are only fragments.</p> +<p>Besides the two principal churches, there are, I think, five chapels +yet standing, and three more remembered. There are also crosses, +of which two bear the names of St. John and St. Matthew.</p> +<p>A large space of ground about these consecrated edifices is covered +with gravestones, few of which have any inscription. He that surveys +it, attended by an insular antiquary, may be told where the Kings of +many nations are buried, and if he loves to sooth his imagination with +the thoughts that naturally rise in places where the great and the powerful +lie mingled with the dust, let him listen in submissive silence; for +if he asks any questions, his delight is at an end.</p> +<p>Iona has long enjoyed, without any very credible attestation, the +honour of being reputed the cemetery of the Scottish Kings. It +is not unlikely, that, when the opinion of local sanctity was prevalent, +the Chieftains of the Isles, and perhaps some of the Norwegian or Irish +princes were reposited in this venerable enclosure. But by whom +the subterraneous vaults are peopled is now utterly unknown. The +graves are very numerous, and some of them undoubtedly contain the remains +of men, who did not expect to be so soon forgotten.</p> +<p>Not far from this awful ground, may be traced the garden of the monastery: +the fishponds are yet discernible, and the aqueduct, which supplied +them, is still in use.</p> +<p>There remains a broken building, which is called the Bishop’s +house, I know not by what authority. It was once the residence +of some man above the common rank, for it has two stories and a chimney. +We were shewn a chimney at the other end, which was only a nich, without +perforation, but so much does antiquarian credulity, or patriotick vanity +prevail, that it was not much more safe to trust the eye of our instructor +than the memory.</p> +<p>There is in the Island one house more, and only one, that has a chimney: +we entered it, and found it neither wanting repair nor inhabitants; +but to the farmers, who now possess it, the chimney is of no great value; +for their fire was made on the floor, in the middle of the room, and +notwithstanding the dignity of their mansion, they rejoiced, like their +neighbours, in the comforts of smoke.</p> +<p>It is observed, that ecclesiastical colleges are always in the most +pleasant and fruitful places. While the world allowed the monks +their choice, it is surely no dishonour that they chose well. +This Island is remarkably fruitful. The village near the churches +is said to contain seventy families, which, at five in a family, is +more than a hundred inhabitants to a mile. There are perhaps other +villages: yet both corn and cattle are annually exported.</p> +<p>But the fruitfulness of Iona is now its whole prosperity. The +inhabitants are remarkably gross, and remarkably neglected: I know not +if they are visited by any Minister. The Island, which was once +the metropolis of learning and piety, has now no school for education, +nor temple for worship, only two inhabitants that can speak English, +and not one that can write or read.</p> +<p>The people are of the clan of Maclean; and though Sir Allan had not +been in the place for many years, he was received with all the reverence +due to their Chieftain. One of them being sharply reprehended +by him, for not sending him some rum, declared after his departure, +in Mr. Boswell’s presence, that he had no design of disappointing +him, ‘for,’ said he, ‘I would cut my bones for him; +and if he had sent his dog for it, he should have had it.’</p> +<p>When we were to depart, our boat was left by the ebb at a great distance +from the water, but no sooner did we wish it afloat, than the islanders +gathered round it, and, by the union of many hands, pushed it down the +beach; every man who could contribute his help seemed to think himself +happy in the opportunity of being, for a moment, useful to his Chief.</p> +<p>We now left those illustrious ruins, by which Mr. Boswell was much +affected, nor would I willingly be thought to have looked upon them +without some emotion. Perhaps, in the revolutions of the world, +Iona may be sometime again the instructress of the Western Regions.</p> +<p>It was no long voyage to Mull, where, under Sir Allan’s protection, +we landed in the evening, and were entertained for the night by Mr. +Maclean, a Minister that lives upon the coast, whose elegance of conversation, +and strength of judgment, would make him conspicuous in places of greater +celebrity. Next day we dined with Dr. Maclean, another physician, +and then travelled on to the house of a very powerful Laird, Maclean +of Lochbuy; for in this country every man’s name is Maclean.</p> +<p>Where races are thus numerous, and thus combined, none but the Chief +of a clan is addressed by his name. The Laird of Dunvegan is called +Macleod, but other gentlemen of the same family are denominated by the +places where they reside, as Raasa, or Talisker. The distinction +of the meaner people is made by their Christian names. In consequence +of this practice, the late Laird of Macfarlane, an eminent genealogist, +considered himself as disrespectfully treated, if the common addition +was applied to him. Mr. Macfarlane, said he, may with equal propriety +be said to many; but I, and I only, am Macfarlane.</p> +<p>Our afternoon journey was through a country of such gloomy desolation, +that Mr. Boswell thought no part of the Highlands equally terrifick, +yet we came without any difficulty, at evening, to Lochbuy, where we +found a true Highland Laird, rough and haughty, and tenacious of his +dignity; who, hearing my name, inquired whether I was of the Johnstons +of Glencroe, or of Ardnamurchan.</p> +<p>Lochbuy has, like the other insular Chieftains, quitted the castle +that sheltered his ancestors, and lives near it, in a mansion not very +spacious or splendid. I have seen no houses in the Islands much +to be envied for convenience or magnificence, yet they bare testimony +to the progress of arts and civility, as they shew that rapine and surprise +are no longer dreaded, and are much more commodious than the ancient +fortresses.</p> +<p>The castles of the Hebrides, many of which are standing, and many +ruined, were always built upon points of land, on the margin of the +sea. For the choice of this situation there must have been some +general reason, which the change of manners has left in obscurity. +They were of no use in the days of piracy, as defences of the coast; +for it was equally accessible in other places. Had they been sea-marks +or light-houses, they would have been of more use to the invader than +the natives, who could want no such directions of their own waters: +for a watch-tower, a cottage on a hill would have been better, as it +would have commanded a wider view.</p> +<p>If they be considered merely as places of retreat, the situation +seems not well chosen; for the Laird of an Island is safest from foreign +enemies in the center; on the coast he might be more suddenly surprised +than in the inland parts; and the invaders, if their enterprise miscarried, +might more easily retreat. Some convenience, however, whatever +it was, their position on the shore afforded; for uniformity of practice +seldom continues long without good reason.</p> +<p>A castle in the Islands is only a single tower of three or four stories, +of which the walls are sometimes eight or nine feet thick, with narrow +windows, and close winding stairs of stone. The top rises in a +cone, or pyramid of stone, encompassed by battlements. The intermediate +floors are sometimes frames of timber, as in common houses, and sometimes +arches of stone, or alternately stone and timber; so that there was +very little danger from fire. In the center of every floor, from +top to bottom, is the chief room, of no great extent, round which there +are narrow cavities, or recesses, formed by small vacuities, or by a +double wall. I know not whether there be ever more than one fire-place. +They had not capacity to contain many people, or much provision; but +their enemies could seldom stay to blockade them; for if they failed +in the first attack, their next care was to escape.</p> +<p>The walls were always too strong to be shaken by such desultory hostilities; +the windows were too narrow to be entered, and the battlements too high +to be scaled. The only danger was at the gates, over which the +wall was built with a square cavity, not unlike a chimney, continued +to the top. Through this hollow the defendants let fall stones +upon those who attempted to break the gate, and poured down water, perhaps +scalding water, if the attack was made with fire. The castle of +Lochbuy was secured by double doors, of which the outer was an iron +grate.</p> +<p>In every castle is a well and a dungeon. The use of the well +is evident. The dungeon is a deep subterraneous cavity, walled +on the sides, and arched on the top, into which the descent is through +a narrow door, by a ladder or a rope, so that it seems impossible to +escape, when the rope or ladder is drawn up. The dungeon was, +I suppose, in war, a prison for such captives as were treated with severity, +and, in peace, for such delinquents as had committed crimes within the +Laird’s jurisdiction; for the mansions of many Lairds were, till +the late privation of their privileges, the halls of justice to their +own tenants.</p> +<p>As these fortifications were the productions of mere necessity, they +are built only for safety, with little regard to convenience, and with +none to elegance or pleasure. It was sufficient for a Laird of +the Hebrides, if he had a strong house, in which he could hide his wife +and children from the next clan. That they are not large nor splendid +is no wonder. It is not easy to find how they were raised, such +as they are, by men who had no money, in countries where the labourers +and artificers could scarcely be fed. The buildings in different +parts of the Island shew their degrees of wealth and power. I +believe that for all the castles which I have seen beyond the Tweed, +the ruins yet remaining of some one of those which the English built +in Wales, would supply materials.</p> +<p>These castles afford another evidence that the fictions of romantick +chivalry had for their basis the real manners of the feudal times, when +every Lord of a seignory lived in his hold lawless and unaccountable, +with all the licentiousness and insolence of uncontested superiority +and unprincipled power. The traveller, whoever he might be, coming +to the fortified habitation of a Chieftain, would, probably, have been +interrogated from the battlements, admitted with caution at the gate, +introduced to a petty Monarch, fierce with habitual hostility, and vigilant +with ignorant suspicion; who, according to his general temper, or accidental +humour, would have seated a stranger as his guest at the table, or as +a spy confined him in the dungeon.</p> +<p>Lochbuy means the Yellow Lake, which is the name given to an inlet +of the sea, upon which the castle of Mr. Maclean stands. The reason +of the appellation we did not learn.</p> +<p>We were now to leave the Hebrides, where we had spent some weeks +with sufficient amusement, and where we had amplified our thoughts with +new scenes of nature, and new modes of life. More time would have +given us a more distinct view, but it was necessary that Mr. Boswell +should return before the courts of justice were opened; and it was not +proper to live too long upon hospitality, however liberally imparted.</p> +<p>Of these Islands it must be confessed, that they have not many allurements, +but to the mere lover of naked nature. The inhabitants are thin, +provisions are scarce, and desolation and penury give little pleasure.</p> +<p>The people collectively considered are not few, though their numbers +are small in proportion to the space which they occupy. Mull is +said to contain six thousand, and Sky fifteen thousand. Of the +computation respecting Mull, I can give no account; but when I doubted +the truth of the numbers attributed to Sky, one of the Ministers exhibited +such facts as conquered my incredulity.</p> +<p>Of the proportion, which the product of any region bears to the people, +an estimate is commonly made according to the pecuniary price of the +necessaries of life; a principle of judgment which is never certain, +because it supposes what is far from truth, that the value of money +is always the same, and so measures an unknown quantity by an uncertain +standard. It is competent enough when the markets of the same +country, at different times, and those times not too distant, are to +be compared; but of very little use for the purpose of making one nation +acquainted with the state of another. Provisions, though plentiful, +are sold in places of great pecuniary opulence for nominal prices, to +which, however scarce, where gold and silver are yet scarcer, they can +never be raised.</p> +<p>In the Western Islands there is so little internal commerce, that +hardly any thing has a known or settled rate. The price of things +brought in, or carried out, is to be considered as that of a foreign +market; and even this there is some difficulty in discovering, because +their denominations of quantity are different from ours; and when there +is ignorance on both sides, no appeal can be made to a common measure.</p> +<p>This, however, is not the only impediment. The Scots, with +a vigilance of jealousy which never goes to sleep, always suspect that +an Englishman despises them for their poverty, and to convince him that +they are not less rich than their neighbours, are sure to tell him a +price higher than the true. When Lesley, two hundred years ago, +related so punctiliously, that a hundred hen eggs, new laid, were sold +in the Islands for a peny, he supposed that no inference could possibly +follow, but that eggs were in great abundance. Posterity has since +grown wiser; and having learned, that nominal and real value may differ, +they now tell no such stories, lest the foreigner should happen to collect, +not that eggs are many, but that pence are few.</p> +<p>Money and wealth have by the use of commercial language been so long +confounded, that they are commonly supposed to be the same; and this +prejudice has spread so widely in Scotland, that I know not whether +I found man or woman, whom I interrogated concerning payments of money, +that could surmount the illiberal desire of deceiving me, by representing +every thing as dearer than it is.</p> +<p>From Lochbuy we rode a very few miles to the side of Mull, which +faces Scotland, where, having taken leave of our kind protector, Sir +Allan, we embarked in a boat, in which the seat provided for our accommodation +was a heap of rough brushwood; and on the twenty-second of October reposed +at a tolerable inn on the main land.</p> +<p>On the next day we began our journey southwards. The weather +was tempestuous. For half the day the ground was rough, and our +horses were still small. Had they required much restraint, we +might have been reduced to difficulties; for I think we had amongst +us but one bridle. We fed the poor animals liberally, and they +performed their journey well. In the latter part of the day, we +came to a firm and smooth road, made by the soldiers, on which we travelled +with great security, busied with contemplating the scene about us. +The night came on while we had yet a great part of the way to go, though +not so dark, but that we could discern the cataracts which poured down +the hills, on one side, and fell into one general channel that ran with +great violence on the other. The wind was loud, the rain was heavy, +and the whistling of the blast, the fall of the shower, the rush of +the cataracts, and the roar of the torrent, made a nobler chorus of +the rough musick of nature than it had ever been my chance to hear before. +The streams, which ran cross the way from the hills to the main current, +were so frequent, that after a while I began to count them; and, in +ten miles, reckoned fifty-five, probably missing some, and having let +some pass before they forced themselves upon my notice. At last +we came to Inverary, where we found an inn, not only commodious, but +magnificent.</p> +<p>The difficulties of peregrination were now at an end. Mr. Boswell +had the honour of being known to the Duke of Argyle, by whom we were +very kindly entertained at his splendid seat, and supplied with conveniences +for surveying his spacious park and rising forests.</p> +<p>After two days stay at Inverary we proceeded Southward over Glencroe, +a black and dreary region, now made easily passable by a military road, +which rises from either end of the glen by an acclivity not dangerously +steep, but sufficiently laborious. In the middle, at the top of +the hill, is a seat with this inscription, ‘Rest, and be thankful.’ +Stones were placed to mark the distances, which the inhabitants have +taken away, resolved, they said, ‘to have no new miles.’</p> +<p>In this rainy season the hills streamed with waterfalls, which, crossing +the way, formed currents on the other side, that ran in contrary directions +as they fell to the north or south of the summit. Being, by the +favour of the Duke, well mounted, I went up and down the hill with great +convenience.</p> +<p>From Glencroe we passed through a pleasant country to the banks of +Loch Lomond, and were received at the house of Sir James Colquhoun, +who is owner of almost all the thirty islands of the Loch, which we +went in a boat next morning to survey. The heaviness of the rain +shortened our voyage, but we landed on one island planted with yew, +and stocked with deer, and on another containing perhaps not more than +half an acre, remarkable for the ruins of an old castle, on which the +osprey builds her annual nest. Had Loch Lomond been in a happier +climate, it would have been the boast of wealth and vanity to own one +of the little spots which it incloses, and to have employed upon it +all the arts of embellishment. But as it is, the islets, which +court the gazer at a distance, disgust him at his approach, when he +finds, instead of soft lawns; and shady thickets, nothing more than +uncultivated ruggedness.</p> +<p>Where the Loch discharges itself into a river, called the Leven, +we passed a night with Mr. Smollet, a relation of Doctor Smollet, to +whose memory he has raised an obelisk on the bank near the house in +which he was born. The civility and respect which we found at +every place, it is ungrateful to omit, and tedious to repeat. +Here we were met by a post-chaise, that conveyed us to Glasgow.</p> +<p>To describe a city so much frequented as Glasgow, is unnecessary. +The prosperity of its commerce appears by the greatness of many private +houses, and a general appearance of wealth. It is the only episcopal +city whose cathedral was left standing in the rage of Reformation. +It is now divided into many separate places of worship, which, taken +all together, compose a great pile, that had been some centuries in +building, but was never finished; for the change of religion intercepted +its progress, before the cross isle was added, which seems essential +to a Gothick cathedral.</p> +<p>The college has not had a sufficient share of the increasing magnificence +of the place. The session was begun; for it commences on the tenth +of October and continues to the tenth of June, but the students appeared +not numerous, being, I suppose, not yet returned from their several +homes. The division of the academical year into one session, and +one recess, seems to me better accommodated to the present state of +life, than that variegation of time by terms and vacations derived from +distant centuries, in which it was probably convenient, and still continued +in the English universities. So many solid months as the Scotch +scheme of education joins together, allow and encourage a plan for each +part of the year; but with us, he that has settled himself to study +in the college is soon tempted into the country, and he that has adjusted +his life in the country, is summoned back to his college.</p> +<p>Yet when I have allowed to the universities of Scotland a more rational +distribution of time, I have given them, so far as my inquiries have +informed me, all that they can claim. The students, for the most +part, go thither boys, and depart before they are men; they carry with +them little fundamental knowledge, and therefore the superstructure +cannot be lofty. The grammar schools are not generally well supplied; +for the character of a school-master being there less honourable than +in England, is seldom accepted by men who are capable to adorn it, and +where the school has been deficient, the college can effect little.</p> +<p>Men bred in the universities of Scotland cannot be expected to be +often decorated with the splendours of ornamental erudition, but they +obtain a mediocrity of knowledge, between learning and ignorance, not +inadequate to the purposes of common life, which is, I believe, very +widely diffused among them, and which countenanced in general by a national +combination so invidious, that their friends cannot defend it, and actuated +in particulars by a spirit of enterprise, so vigorous, that their enemies +are constrained to praise it, enables them to find, or to make their +way to employment, riches, and distinction.</p> +<p>From Glasgow we directed our course to Auchinleck, an estate devolved, +through a long series of ancestors, to Mr. Boswell’s father, the +present possessor. In our way we found several places remarkable +enough in themselves, but already described by those who viewed them +at more leisure, or with much more skill; and stopped two days at Mr. +Campbell’s, a gentleman married to Mr. Boswell’s sister.</p> +<p>Auchinleck, which signifies a stony field, seems not now to have +any particular claim to its denomination. It is a district generally +level, and sufficiently fertile, but like all the Western side of Scotland, +incommoded by very frequent rain. It was, with the rest of the +country, generally naked, till the present possessor finding, by the +growth of some stately trees near his old castle, that the ground was +favourable enough to timber, adorned it very diligently with annual +plantations.</p> +<p>Lord Auchinleck, who is one of the Judges of Scotland, and therefore +not wholly at leisure for domestick business or pleasure, has yet found +time to make improvements in his patrimony. He has built a house +of hewn stone, very stately, and durable, and has advanced the value +of his lands with great tenderness to his tenants.</p> +<p>I was, however, less delighted with the elegance of the modern mansion, +than with the sullen dignity of the old castle. I clambered with +Mr. Boswell among the ruins, which afford striking images of ancient +life. It is, like other castles, built upon a point of rock, and +was, I believe, anciently surrounded with a moat. There is another +rock near it, to which the drawbridge, when it was let down, is said +to have reached. Here, in the ages of tumult and rapine, the Laird +was surprised and killed by the neighbouring Chief, who perhaps might +have extinguished the family, had he not in a few days been seized and +hanged, together with his sons, by Douglas, who came with his forces +to the relief of Auchinleck.</p> +<p>At no great distance from the house runs a pleasing brook, by a red +rock, out of which has been hewn a very agreeable and commodious summer-house, +at less expence, as Lord Auchinleck told me, than would have been required +to build a room of the same dimensions. The rock seems to have +no more dampness than any other wall. Such opportunities of variety +it is judicious not to neglect.</p> +<p>We now returned to Edinburgh, where I passed some days with men of +learning, whose names want no advancement from my commemoration, or +with women of elegance, which perhaps disclaims a pedant’s praise.</p> +<p>The conversation of the Scots grows every day less unpleasing to +the English; their peculiarities wear fast away; their dialect is likely +to become in half a century provincial and rustick, even to themselves. +The great, the learned, the ambitious, and the vain, all cultivate the +English phrase, and the English pronunciation, and in splendid companies +Scotch is not much heard, except now and then from an old Lady.</p> +<p>There is one subject of philosophical curiosity to be found in Edinburgh, +which no other city has to shew; a college of the deaf and dumb, who +are taught to speak, to read, to write, and to practice arithmetick, +by a gentleman, whose name is Braidwood. The number which attends +him is, I think, about twelve, which he brings together into a little +school, and instructs according to their several degrees of proficiency.</p> +<p>I do not mean to mention the instruction of the deaf as new. +Having been first practised upon the son of a constable of Spain, it +was afterwards cultivated with much emulation in England, by Wallis +and Holder, and was lately professed by Mr. Baker, who once flattered +me with hopes of seeing his method published. How far any former +teachers have succeeded, it is not easy to know; the improvement of +Mr. Braidwood’s pupils is wonderful. They not only speak, +write, and understand what is written, but if he that speaks looks towards +them, and modifies his organs by distinct and full utterance, they know +so well what is spoken, that it is an expression scarcely figurative +to say, they hear with the eye. That any have attained to the +power mentioned by Burnet, of feeling sounds, by laying a hand on the +speaker’s mouth, I know not; but I have seen so much, that I can +believe more; a single word, or a short sentence, I think, may possibly +be so distinguished.</p> +<p>It will readily be supposed by those that consider this subject, +that Mr. Braidwood’s scholars spell accurately. Orthography +is vitiated among such as learn first to speak, and then to write, by +imperfect notions of the relation between letters and vocal utterance; +but to those students every character is of equal importance; for letters +are to them not symbols of names, but of things; when they write they +do not represent a sound, but delineate a form.</p> +<p>This school I visited, and found some of the scholars waiting for +their master, whom they are said to receive at his entrance with smiling +countenances and sparkling eyes, delighted with the hope of new ideas. +One of the young Ladies had her slate before her, on which I wrote a +question consisting of three figures, to be multiplied by two figures. +She looked upon it, and quivering her fingers in a manner which I thought +very pretty, but of which I know not whether it was art or play, multiplied +the sum regularly in two lines, observing the decimal place; but did +not add the two lines together, probably disdaining so easy an operation. +I pointed at the place where the sum total should stand, and she noted +it with such expedition as seemed to shew that she had it only to write.</p> +<p>It was pleasing to see one of the most desperate of human calamities +capable of so much help; whatever enlarges hope, will exalt courage; +after having seen the deaf taught arithmetick, who would be afraid to +cultivate the Hebrides?</p> +<p>Such are the things which this journey has given me an opportunity +of seeing, and such are the reflections which that sight has raised. +Having passed my time almost wholly in cities, I may have been surprised +by modes of life and appearances of nature, that are familiar to men +of wider survey and more varied conversation. Novelty and ignorance +must always be reciprocal, and I cannot but be conscious that my thoughts +on national manners, are the thoughts of one who has seen but little.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLES OF</p> +<pre> +SCOTLAND*** + + +***** This file should be named 2064-h.htm or 2064-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/6/2064 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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